Lo & High Road Photo Credit Ashlynn Paterson
Cobourg, Ontario based Lo & the High Road release “Salem,” the latest single from their sophomore album, ‘Standing Stones,’ out October 2. Written by Lauren Halász and Colin McMahon, “Salem” trades the duo’s usual fantasy and folklore for real history, drawing directly from the Salem Witch Trials and the words of the women who did not survive them.
While researching the trials, Halász came across a list of last words attributed to the accused and found herself returning again and again to those of Sarah Good, one of the first three women condemned. According to historical accounts, asked to confess by Reverend Nicholas Noyes moments before her execution, Good responded, “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 that the line belonged in her chorus. “In a way, Sarah Good was my co-writer,” she says.
“Salem” builds outward from that history into something with a longer reach. “I never signed the devil’s book, but I start to think that you did,” Halász sings, before the chorus turns the accusation back on the accusers: “All ye who stack up the stones, God will give you blood to drink, tear innocents out of their homes, God will give you blood to drink.” The bridge shifts the song’s focus from the past to the present, softening the record’s anger into something closer to a plea: “I will call out this pain through the centuries, using the voices of those who still remember me, and we will cry out for peace, we will cry out for empathy, when you repeat the pages of our history.” For Halász, the song is less about condemning history than recognizing how easily fear of an othered group can still be stoked by those in power, then and now.
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/track/6lYbUFyVgGjc9Sa4epbPti?si=f3ba310a2b804d32&nd=1&dlsi=cb072e40f45f476b&autoplay_ok=1
Musically, “Salem” pushes further into indie rock territory than most of the duo’s catalogue, built around electric guitar and a full drum kit rather than the band’s usual folk instrumentation. Halász layered her backing vocalist practically yelling the “God will give you blood to drink” line beneath the lead vocal, a moment the whole band recreates live, and worked with McMahon to layer the bridge melody directly over the pre-chorus and chorus, a piece of vocal counterpoint she hadn’t planned when writing but that came together once they tried recording it. The track was written and recorded, like the rest of ‘Standing Stones,’ in the duo’s home studio in Cobourg.
“Salem” was produced by McMahon, with lead vocals from Halász, additional vocals from Christine Dando, mandolin and guitar from McMahon, percussion from Martin Gladman and background vocals from Amanda Weatherall. The single’s cover art comes from Abbey Spear.
Halász (songwriting, vocals, bass, bodhrán) and McMahon (songwriting, arrangement, production, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki) have built Lo & the High Road into one of Canadian folk’s most devoted followings, drawing more than 200,000 fans worldwide who turn to their music for tabletop role playing soundtracks, woodland weddings and Renaissance faires alike. Their 2023 debut, ‘Jackalope Tales (& Other Stories),’ has surpassed 2.8 million streams on Spotifyacross nine tracks exploring growing up, resilience and childhood wonder. This year the duo toured Eastern Canada from Toronto to Halifax, including Kingston’s Ironwood Fantasy Fair, and will be performing at Port Hope’s Cultivate Festival, joined live by Dave Finneran on guitar, Christine Dando on vocals, and Jordan Baldwin on violin.
‘Standing Stones’ expands the duo’s world building across 14 tracks, pairing four traditional songs with 10 originals drawn from Greek mythology and real historical events, including previously released singles “The Fawn & the Huntress,” featuring Lunar Bloom, and “Dance of the Dryads,” alongside new songs like the title track, “Salem” and “The Weaver.” Guest artists Christine Dando, Jordan Baldwin, Saskia Tomkins on nyckelharpa and Steáfán Hannigan on uilleann pipes, bodhrán and Irish flute all join the record.
With “Salem” out now and ‘Standing Stones’ arriving October 2, Lo & the High Road continues proving that the line between myth and history, and between the past and the present, is thinner than it looks.