In “Sister’s Heart,” Abigail Dowd tells what is likely a story of indigenous North Carolinians hiding and surviving, holding onto their culture and family ties despite four centuries of colonization. “Sisterland of the longleaf pine / hold our brothers where the canebrakes hide,” she sings over twilit blues. In her song–and in Native North Carolinian history–making it to another day sometimes means it’s safer to lay low among swamp rattlesnakes than risk being out in the open.
“A sister’s heart is stronger than a hundred men,” Dowd sings.
On Dowd’s fourth LP, the North Carolina songwriter teamed up with Durham-based producer Jason Richmond (Nnenna Freelon, Avett Brothers, Joe Troop). At once grounded and metaphysical, the bluesy neo-soul of Dowd’s Saints & Warriors lands somewhere between Joy Oladokun and Patti Smith.
