Abigail Dowd is a singer-songwriter and guitarist whose music weaves together Southern roots, personal experience, and a deep connection to the natural world. Raised beneath the longleaf pines of North Carolina’s Sandhills, she grew up with a deep appreciation for storytelling and the healing power of music. Her latest release, Saints & Warriors , blends blues-rooted Americana with soulful storytelling. As No Depression wrote, the album’s sound is “at once grounded and metaphysical… landing somewhere between Joy Oladokun and Patti Smith.” Dowd returns to the North Carolina Folk Festival for the third consecutive year and is a familiar presence in Greensboro’s songwriting community. She hosts the Songwriter Series at the Flat Iron , a monthly round that’s grown into one of the city’s favorite listening rooms. Dowd calls it “an evening in my adopted living room,” where musicians trade songs, try out new ones, revisit old favorites, and sometimes make things up on the spot.