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Abigail Lapell buttons up Yellowknife

Folk on the Rocks officially kicks off next Saturday, but before Yellowknife's marquee summer party kicks off, Abigail Lapell will give the folks some folk at a couple of different venues.

Abigail Lapell will be playing a number of shows throughout the city ahead of this year's Folk on The Rocks next week before she takes the stage at the big event itself. photo courtesy of Abigail Lapell

the Toronto-based "folk-noire" artist – who also plays on Saturday at the festival – plays an acoustic set at Music in the Park at Somba K'e Plaza on Wednesday.

“I'm going to be playing solo with a guitar and a bit of percussion and vocals so its going to be a pretty stripped down, raw, folk-noire kind of thing,” said Lapell during a recent phone interview with Yellowknifer.

That set will be followed the next night at Rock the Quarry, a Folk on the Rocks pre-show event where Lapell will tweak her show from the night before to entertain crowds at Chateau Nova's large lounge.

“I think its safe to say some of the sets will be more unconventional. Some will be contemporary unplugged. I'm looking to put together a few different sets,” said Lapell.

“Its going to be a variety of different stuff. Im hoping to do a mix of old and new stuff. It will be a chance to preview some of the new stuff from my next album.”

Lapell said that she hopes to debut music off her third studio album that is set to be released in 2019 during her first time in the NWT, she hopes to use the Northern audience to gauge some of her new songs.

“My songs are like melodic, contemporary folk music,” said Lapell. “I'm pretty close to being done producing my next album so I'm hoping to test out some of my new stuff.”

Lapell is not only excited to play music for Yellowknife, but to also explore what the city has to offer throughout the week.

She says that she has wanted to venture to the North for close to a decade after reading about Folk on the Rocks online and hearing about the city's houseboats from a friend.

“I think I might have heard about it maybe 10 years ago, its kind of been one that I've seen just online ... I think you know I don't wanna romanticize the north but its a place that's hard to get to on a normal tour, it wouldn't make sense to make that trip, so its a bit of an exotic thing,” said Lapell. “A friend of mine would tell me about living on a house boat. It sounds like a town of a bunch of people that are doing there thing, it sounds like a place where you have to sort of being independent.”

Lapell says the festival has set her up to join a number of tours around town in between her different sets including a walk around Frame Lake, and “How to be a Yellowknifer” tour.

Once she has finished exploring the city and serenading the people she will be heading back to Toronto before starting a cross-country road tour.

Lapell has previously toured across Canada, the United States and Europe.