Lo & the High Road, the Cobourg-based Celtic project of Lauren Halász and Colin McMahon, have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the vinyl and CD pressing of their sophomore album, Standing Stones, due in early fall 2026.
And they’ve already exceeded their modest initial goal.
The campaign follows the duo’s successful Lanterns in the Mist Tour, which brought their latest single and a catalogue steeped in fantasy, folklore, and nature to audiences across Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.
Lauren (songwriting, lead vocals, bodhrán, Irish whistle) and Colin (songwriting, production, guitar, mandolin, bouzouki) have spent the past several years building a devoted following of more than 200,000 fans who turn to their music for tabletop role playing soundtracks, woodland weddings, and Renaissance fairs alike. Their 2023 debut, Jackalope Tales (& Other Stories), has surpassed 2.5 million streams on Spotify, weaving three traditional songs with six originals into a record centred on growing up, resilience, and childhood wonder.
That same sense of myth carried into 2025’s “Lanterns in the Mist,” a single that follows a child spirited away by fairies, a story Lauren has said appears across cultures worldwide, sometimes as a warning and sometimes as a rescue. She has described writing the song as a way of finding a space between worlds to rest.
Standing Stones extends that world building across a 13-track collection, pairing the band’s originals with traditional pieces from Ireland, Scotland, and Canada.
The album folds in previously released singles “The Fawn & the Huntress,” featuring Lunar Bloom, and “Dance of the Dryads,” both drawn from Greek mythology, alongside new songs like the title track, “Salem,” and “The Weaver.”
Guest artists Christine Rabey (vocals), Jordan Baldwin (violin, viol, vocals), Saskia Tomkins (nyckelharpa), and Steáfán Hannigan (uilleann pipes, bodhrán, Irish flute) join the record, with cover art once again designed by Abbey Komes, who previously created the artwork for “The Fawn & the Huntress” and “Lanterns in the Mist.”
The Kickstarter serves both as a pre-order for physical copies and a way for fans to support the album’s completion, with all backers acknowledged in the CD and vinyl insert. Supporters can also pick up existing merchandise through the campaign while the band finishes the album’s remaining tracks ahead of its fall release.
