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Toronto folk musician Abigail Lapell to play at Trail Mix show at Izaak Walton

Abigail Lapell (Provided photo)

Abigail Lapell, an international folk musician from Toronto, is set to perform at Izaak Walton Preserve on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 24, as a part of the Trail Mix Concert Series. Kate Prascher, a singer and guitarist from Hudson Valley, New York, is set to open for her.

Lapell won Best English Songwriter of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in 2023 and 2020. She won the Contemporary Album of the Year award in 2017. She has about 300,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Lapell is the first act to travel to a Trail Mix show from somewhere outside of the United States. 

“Most of — if not all of — our [headlining] artists have toured internationally. But we’ve not had any that were based outside of the United States yet,” Trail Mix Productions Director Steve Ploum said.

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Prascher is excited to perform at the event, Ploum said, adding that an upstate New York artist feeling this way says something about the positive reputation that Trail Mix has built.

Trail Mix has hosted five other concerts this year. Other than the show that featured four local acts, this will be the first Trail Mix show in 2024 held at Izaak Walton Preserve, its original location. Ploum said the June 16 show featuring Joe Pug would’ve been held at Izaak Walton but was held at Thornton Distilling Company to avoid the sound of Homewood’s cicadas.

Ploum said that while he’s excited for Trail Mix to be back at Izaak Walton, 1100 Ridge Road, hosting a concert with a backdrop of trees, he stressed that hosting shows in other locations aligns with Trail’s Mix’s mission statement to bring quality, live music to the South Suburbs.

“Going back to the very beginning of Trail Mix [in 2016], it was initially a partnership between Trails for Illinois, which was a not-for-profit that was in the area, and we were holding it at Izaak Walton,” Ploum said. “It was developed by a team group that I was in. And the teenagers came up with the name Trail Mix. Because it connected [nature] trails with the idea of mixing music.”

Ploum said the name “Trail Mix” has since become associated with live, acoustic music that “people lean in and really listen to.”

“I think music is good for the soul,” Ploum said, regarding why he loves music. “Music helps us make sense of the world. I think music helps us make sense of ourselves.”

Trail Mix, a nonprofit organization, has also recently expanded beyond its concert series and began putting local venues in touch with local and regional musicians. While these Trail Mix Presents shows are given Trail Mix’s stamp of approval, they’re not considered a part of the concert series because Trail Mix isn’t hosting them.

Tickets to the Aug. 24 show can be purchased at TrailMix.org.

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