LO & THE HIGH ROAD Release Sophomore Album STANDING STONES

Celtic folk duo Lo & the High Road has released their sophomore album, 'Standing Stones,' a 14-track record that trades some of the whimsy of their debut for something noticeably darker, both musically and lyrically.

Written by Lauren Halász and Colin McMahon, the Cobourg, Ontario duo describes the album as a reaction to a difficult few years in the world, one that pulled them toward grotesque corners of Greek mythology and real historical darkness while still leaving room for hints of light. Fans helped bring the physical record to life too, backing a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year to fund the album's CD and vinyl pressing, with every supporter acknowledged in the insert.

'Canaries' reworks a bright Renaissance lute tune with a folksy spin, and the duo's take on 'Wild Mountain Thyme' honours one of the best loved folk melodies from Scotland and Ireland. Elsewhere, the record leans into a wider tonal range than anything the pair has released before. Multi-instrumentalist Saskia Tomkins adds nyckelharpa, a Swedish keyed violin dating back over 600 years, to 'The Weaver' and 'King of the Fairies,' while Steáfán Hannigan contributes uilleann pipes, an instrument Halász and McMahon describe as powerful but almost mournful. Hannigan also contributed Irish flute and tin whistle to the album, which was recorded in their home studio. At the other end of the spectrum, a handful of songs bring in electric guitar. 'Overall, we wanted this album to feel out of time,' the duo explains, 'some songs feeling very old, fitting the mythology and history they were based off of, and some tracks a little more modern.'

The title track started as Colin's idea for a song specifically about community and platonic love, inspired by standing stones, the large upright rocks placed during the Bronze Age in Europe whose original purpose is still unknown. 'I have this idea that the earth remembers, even if people do not,' Halász says, a thought she wanted to capture in the song's bridge. To sell that ancient feeling, backing vocalist Christine Dando sings a parallel fourth beneath the main melody in the chorus, a harmony style common in Medieval music, while violinist Jordan Baldwin plays a melody reminiscent of a hurdy-gurdy, an instrument dating as far back as the 10th century.

'Salem' trades the duo's usual fantasy and folklore for real history, drawing directly on the Salem Witch Trials and the words of the women who did not survive them. While researching the trials, Halász kept returning to the last words attributed to Sarah Good, one of the first three women condemned. Asked to confess by Reverend Nicholas Noyes moments before her execution, Good is recorded as responding, 'I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.' Halász knew immediately the line belonged in her chorus. 'In a way, Sarah Good was my co-writer,' she says.

Musically, the song pushes further into indie rock territory than anything else in the duo's catalogue, built around electric guitar and a full drum kit rather than their usual folk instrumentation, with a backing vocal part recorded practically yelling beneath the lead, a moment the band recreates live, and a bridge melody layered directly over the pre-chorus and chorus, a piece of vocal counterpoint that came together once they tried recording it rather than something planned from the start.

'God of the River' draws on Book 21 of the Iliad, where Achilles piles slaughtered Trojans into the river Scamander after the death of Patroclus, angering the river god enough to rise up and fight him. 'We wanted to write something about the environment, and humans' treatment of it, while still staying within the themes of myth and history that flow throughout this album,' the duo explains, framing the river's eventual healing as an act of faith in nature's own resilience, even if, as they put it, humans have not let up yet.

'The Weaver' grew out of a desire to include a sea shanty on the album, and a search for one written from a woman's perspective that led the duo to waulking songs, known in Cape Breton as milling frolics, work songs from the historically female world of textiles. They paired that musical form with Ovid's story of Arachne, a weaver so skilled she draws the ire of Athena and is transformed into a spider, a crafting metaphor the pair found fitting for the song's structure.

Based in Cobourg, Ontario, Lo & the High Road has built one of Canadian folk's most devoted followings, drawing coverage from Cashbox Canada, Tinnitist, Celtic Life International and Record World International across the singles leading up to this release.

Their 2023 debut, 'Jackalope Tales (& other stories),' has surpassed 2.8 million streams on Spotify across nine tracks exploring growing up, resilience and childhood wonder, and the band has amassed more than 200,000 social media followers worldwide, many of whom turn to their music for tabletop role playing soundtracks, woodland weddings and Renaissance faires.

A successful 2026 tour carried the duo, joined live by Dave Finneran, Christine Dando and Jordan Baldwin, from Toronto to Halifax, including Kingston's Ironwood Fantasy Fair and Port Hope's Cultivate Festival.

'Standing Stones' Track Listing

Standing Stones

Lanterns in the Mist

King of the Fairies

Salem

Burrowing Song

She's Like the Swallow

The Myth

Wild Mountain Thyme

Canaries

The Fawn & the Huntress (feat. Lunar Bloom)

Dirge for Patroclus

God of the River

The Weaver

Dance of the Dryads

'Standing Stones' Album Credits

Music and lyrics: Lauren Halász and Colin McMahon ('Dance of the Dryads' by Colin McMahon; 'Dirge for Patroclus' additionally by Steáfán Hannigan; 'King of the Fairies,' 'Wild Mountain Thyme,' 'She's Like the Swallow' and 'Canaries' traditional).

Producer: Colin McMahon.

Lead vocals: Lauren Halász.

Additional vocals: Christine Dando, Jordan Baldwin, Colin McMahon, David Finneran, Amanda Weatherall.

Violin, viol: Jordan Baldwin.

Flugelhorn: Evan Dando.

Octave mandolin, guitar, lute, bass: Colin McMahon.

Bodhrán: Steáfán Hannigan, Lauren Halász.

Uilleann pipes, Irish flute: Steáfán Hannigan.

Tin whistle: Lauren Halász, Steáfán Hannigan.

Nyckelharpa: Saskia Tomkins.

Bass: Colin McMahon, Lauren Halász.

Percussion: Martin Gladman, David Finneran.

Album cover art: Abbey Komes.

Published by Will-o'-Wisp Records (SOCAN).