Abigail Lapell & Her Band ft. Dana Sipos

  • The Dream Café

    67 Front Street
    Penticton, British Columbia V2A 1H2
Ticket Price (CAD) $30.12 This event is now over
Description

Just listen. Toronto songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Abigail Lapell offers this prompt at the end of synesthetic piano tune “I See Music”, but the invitation could apply to her entire third album, Stolen Time. Produced by Howard Bilerman at Hotel2Tango Studio in Montreal, Stolen Time is elemental and powerfully evocative, channeling natural imagery and the revolving seasons to take a longer look over decades and generations, ultimately delivering up the present moment the way only the best music can.  
  
A theme of recovery runs through Stolen Time, with lyrics about becoming sober or coping with a partner’s sudden illness, exploring the cycle of relapse and rehabilitation. The album’s title comes from the musical term tempo rubato, which Lapell picked up while teaching herself piano (“I See Music” and “Pines” are both piano tracks). Referring to the expressive push and pull of tempo in musical phrasing, it’s also a fitting metaphor for the fragile rhythm of uncertain times, darkness hand in hand with escapism. On “Scarlet Fever,” swirling and woozy with Rachael Cardiello’s viola and Peggy Lee’s cello, Lapell recalls a relative’s tales of childhood quarantine; “Sewage” is a fever dream of a loved one recovering from surgery. “All Dressed Up,” a honeyed sweet duet with Montreal’s Chris Velan, echoes how many of us have felt these past two years while waiting to recover our lives.  
  
By turns poetic and painterly, Stolen Time brings a live-off-the-floor, 70s folk-rock vibe and structural experimentation to songs that feel expansive in their scope—unhurried, psychedelic and other-worldly in the vein of Gillian Welch or Karen Dalton. It also marks the meeting of two important music communities for Lapell, who spent formative years living in Montreal’s Mile End before moving back to her hometown. Toronto players include Dan Fortin (bass), Dani Nash (drums, vocals) and Christine Bougie (lap steel, guitars); and from Montreal, Katie Moore (vocals), Pietro Amato (French horn) and Ellwood Epps (trumpet). 
  
Lapell’s band underscores and meets the power of her vocals on songs like “Ships,” a wild sax solo seemingly enticing her higher and louder to meet the crashing waves. The twangy guitar of “Stolen Time” recalls the hazy ambivalence of lazy summer days, wasting away in a state between bliss and blitz. “Old Flames,” with Lapell’s melodic fingerstyle guitar mimicking flickering embers, could be read as a bit of an answer song to Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.”  
  
But many of Stolen Time’s standout tracks are solo guitar or piano ballads, backed by little more than Lapell’s harmonica, antique pump organ or accordion--including “Waterfall,” with its captivating cascade of descending notes; love song closer “I Can’t Believe,” which sounds like a 1950s standard and features Nashville legend Fats Kaplin on pedal steel; and “Land Of Plenty,” which you would be forgiven for mistaking for a lost Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger tune.   
  
Over the past five years and two spellbinding albums, Lapell has garnered two Canadian Folk Music Awards (English Songwriter of the Year in 2020 and Contemporary Album of the Year in 2017), hit number one on Canadian folk radio and accrued a staggering 13 million+ Spotify streams while touring widely across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.  
  
Stolen Time is out April 22, 2022 on Outside Music. 

 

Venue Details

The Dream Café

67 Front Street
Penticton, British Columbia V2A 1H2 The Dream Café
The Dream Café

*As of July 1, 2024, we will be adding a $10 minimum food charge at the venue as we are a food-primary establishment*

 

Founded in 2001, we've developed a reputation, among artists and audiences alike, as a premium live entertainment venue across Canada and further afield. 

Our room is a listening room, which is a rare gem to find. There is no greater gift to give performers than to simply listen. They bring with them years of dedication and we get to enjoy and absorb their creativity. As an audience member, the experience is without parallel, providing an incredibly intimate and unique opportunity to see top talent from Canada, and around the world.

A wide range of musical styles can be seen on the Dream stage. Though they differ in genre, they are united in their skills. Expect to see Jazz, blues, indie, R&B, folk, punk, spoken word, reggae, rock, country, comedy, and more.

Chef Matt, who joined the Dream in 2023, offers an ethnic influence on his delectable, fresh and nutritious menu.

A night at the Dream Café includes a warm welcome, great food and an outstanding music experience. Our regulars know that no matter who is gracing the stage that night - the calibre of music and entertainment will be excellent. Thank you for supporting live music, the arts and The Dream Cafê

There's no need to print your tickets, we will greet you at the door with our guest list for the show.

Doors open 6pm (unless otherwise stated). Show starts at 8pm. Kitchen is open from 6-9pm.

 

The Dream Café

Reservations: reservations@thedreamcafe.ca

Manager: manager@thedreamcafe.ca

Phone: 250-490-9012


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