If this was an infomercial, it would begin with “In just three minutes a day, transform your life and break out of your destiny”…but I’m saving that part for the end.

DOWNLOAD SAINTS & WARRIORS

Not everyone gets a trophy. But there’s one with your name on it.

My summer reading list includes a book my brother recommended called the 9L’s of Leadership by Corely Moore. The first “L” is Learning, and in this section he quotes Earl Nightingale:

“One hour per day of study in your chosen field is all it takes. One hour per day of study will put you at the top of your field within three years. Within five years you’ll be a total authority. In seven years, you can be one of the best people in the world at what you do.”

This got me thinking, as I do. I’ll spare you the rabbit holes and cut to the kill. My conclusion is that there’s room for every one of us to be at the top. If I dive into my chosen field (which is about 17 different things at once), and you dive into yours (whether it’s 1 or 20 things), and so on, we aren’t competing for the top. We’re reaching our own best. And when we share our best with each other, the whole of us expands.

How brilliant would it be to focus on being our best selves instead of “the best.” We all win. We’d all vibrating at a higher frequency together at the top. I’ll meet you there around the fire.

Fists of Anger and the Study of Fire

The 9L's book I mentioned above is written by a fire battalion chief. I have a thing for fire, especially for the inner kind that hides in the walls and burns invisibly. The kind you command and transform rather than extinguish. Without realizing it, it’s what I’ve been over here learning about for years.

At 27, I was in the process of burning my life down when someone I trust told me I needed to acknowledge my anger. What anger? All love and light, I was an arrogant expert in forgiveness and gratitude. He assured me I had plenty of reason to be angry and that I oughta find it. “Try physically releasing it.”

So I went home and faked being angry. I smashed an old pot in the back yard. It felt pretty good. So I smashed another one. I climbed up on a table and raised a third one over my head and slammed it to the ground. I don’t remember how many it took before I turned into a crumpled, sobbing mess. It was amazing.

When I ran out of pots

I ran out of pots before I ran out of anger. There’s always something to be angry at. How did our infinite souls get crammed into these tiny clay pots of a body? That’s worth getting a little pissy about even while being simultaneously grateful for this wild human experience.

So, I made it a daily practice to command my anger. During the years I was writing the songs on Saints & Warriors, I did this Fists of Anger Meditation every day for three-five minutes. (Cue infomercial, “and now it can be yours…for free!”)

Here it is. If you come back to repeat this each day, the mediation starts at 1:35:00.

It’s wild what you find, and what you don’t, in three minutes.

You don’t have to understand it. Just throw your arms over your head like I did those pots and see what happens.

DOWNLOAD SAINTS & WARRIORS

Peace, ~A

Advisory. Sound is Real.

When I was 14, my step/bonus mom, Gina, taught me the mantra Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. We were sitting in traffic in Boulder, Colorado, and I was staring out at the front range of the Rockies. “Whatever you want, it will bring whether you’re ready for it or not,” she told me. I believed her and for some reason that idea scared me. I wouldn’t say the words out loud, but I loved listening to her chant the Gongyo and filling the house with incense.

Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō “represents a vow to embrace your inherent Buddha nature, overcome suffering, and reveal your highest potential.”

At 27, it crept up on me. I loved the life I’d built, but I knew I wasn’t on “my” path. I cried every day knowing what I had to lose. Without realizing it, I’d find myself chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō over and over. I lost and gained everything.

You’ve been advised.

Behind the Music.

The first track of Saints & Warriors, “Can’t Tell You Why” ends with a mantra. Ek Onkar. When we were recording, George Sluppick suggested I do some of my chanting over the outro and snuck this video of the moment in the studio.

HEAR "CAN'T TELL YOU WHY"

Sound cuts like a blade.

After a decade or more of quietly practicing yoga alone out of the only book I could find, I was back out visiting Gina and dropped into a yoga studio. When the class erupted in mantra, it was like showing up at a church in the South with really good music. The same way I’d let Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō lay dormant, I’d been skipping the mantras all these years. I dove in baptized and singing.

Ek Ong Kar encapsulates unity, authenticity, compassion and the truth of oneness. It was composed by Guru Nanak, a mystic, a poet and the first Sikh, the “singing guru.”

When we have command of our sound, we have command of our lives. What we speak, we call into form. Words slip out with ease and carelessness and shape our reality. This doesn’t always take us where we want to go.

Mantra overrides. It’s almost trickster-like, this power of singing and chanting. The peaceful ease of reciting high frequency sound that cuts straight through all the other illusions we live. Mantra penetrates and elevates. It will sweep away the security blankets we hold on to.

It’s pretty trippy. It’s playful and serious. Like laughing while juggling swords.

It’s Science

In Kulreet Chaudhary’s book Sound Medicine, she writes:

“Chanting a mantra is a deliberate act with a specific prescribed intention for outcome. The thoughts in our minds, according to Vedic philosophy, are also sound, and therefore if you are able to have thoughts with intention you are communicating your desires and manifesting your life more directly into the vibratory substance of the universe from which all matter arises. Even silent mantras, when chanted in the mind, still act as sound waves and can alter the vibrations within the body….Mantra meditation [is] a precise way of participating with the universe.”

Warrior Saints & Ek Onkar

In connection with my album’s title Saints & Warriors, it’s worth mentioning the Sikh tradition of warrior saints, a deeply spiritual person who pairs wisdom and devotion to God with the courage and martial skill to defend the innocent against oppression.

This short film is a glimpse of the Nihang Warrior Saints of Northern India paired with Arthurian legend.

Dance with the universe and see what happens. I’ve found that I don’t have to have clarity to find what I’m looking for. There’s a higher version that knows. Mantra quiets all the others and flays away layers of illusion.

Sat nam, y’all. ~A

STREAM THE ALBUM HERE

Saints & Warriors is out on all digital platforms. The first song Can’t Tell You Why is trippy AF to me and I love it. It’s miles from the demo and if you missed that original version, read the first postcard here.

Sitting on the floor of a nearly unfurnished living room on a Sunday morning the words of this song didn’t mean much or resonate. I just liked em, the way they echoed off bare floors. And they kept coming.

ACKNOWLEDGING REALITY

Forbes magazine published an article on accountability in 2018 that came to mind as I was writing Can’t Tell You Why. The verses feel like acknowledging reality and our creation of it.

Things can happen to you or because of you. When the article came out, I had made it’s graphic the lock screen on my phone for about 6 months so I could acknowledge how often my language was below the “victim line.” At the time, our house was flooding over and over. Looking back, I think this ladder helped keep me from drowning when it felt like life was happening to me. This and chanting mantras.

There are miracles standing by waiting when we start making it happen.

STREAM THE ALBUM HERE

Stay tuned for next time in Postcards from Saints & Warriors:

Neuroscience and Nihang Warriors - Meet the mantra in Track One

This album started like a radio wire to the universe.

Writing from Planet Earth.
Shit is getting real.
Send high frequency.

My dreams were wild. Days were isolating. I got stubbornly disciplined about making my bed, eating well and doing yoga every day because all the other structure in my life crumpled without warning beneath me.

Between moving houses, navigating the pandemic, losing Pop, selling our childhood home, and trying to stay sane, songs dropped in like aerial transmissions.

The songs on this album felt like the few things being birthed.

I managed to stay fascinated by and curious of the unraveling. Life has a way of mirroring The Shawshank Redemption. We can find ourselves both innocent and simultaneously behind bars of our own making. With self awareness, patience, and the stomach to crawl alone through a sewer of shit, I’ve found that we do come out clean on the other side.

I was not wrong.

I was also not alone. There are saints and warriors in every track.
Nihang warriors of Punjab. Saint Rosalia of Palermo.
Highland Scots making their way over the buffalo trails of NC.
A mother in Saigon searching for decades to know her daughter made it to the US.
My Dad, who for 20 years I called San Giovanni.

I hadn’t realized at the time the gift that was the first track to drop in. It is this track, Can’t Tell You Why, that kicks off the album.

Original Transmission: Demo of Can’t Tell You Why

I can’t wait for you to hear how George Sluppick locks in a grove that transcends where this demo began. By the end of the session I was chanting mantras and building up harmonies that make this one extra special.

Stay tuned for next time in Postcards from Saints & Warriors:
Behind “Can’t Tell You Why.”

I’ll tell you what I know.

Keep the frequency high. End of transmission.

I want you to have a download copy of Saints & Warriors before it releases on digital platforms later this month.

Read more

…Sam Frazier’s On My Radio

True statement. Like Saints & Warriors you can find Sam’s music on Bandcamp here. It wouldn’t be right for Sam not to play on “Sunday Morning.” He and Scott Sawyer (whose magical music is here) go way back and it was a special moment when the two reunited in the studio for the first time since before Covid.

Then we all sat down. Joe MacPhail (find this musical wizard here) laid down a groove and, without rehearsal, everyone started playing. All I had to do was sing. It felt like flying.

SAINTS & WARRIORS:
Like a Thunderbum Roaring Through the Sky

I rocked my Thunderbum sweatshirt (pictured above) in the studio when we were making this album. It’s a reference to the 396th Fighter Squadron. Only after he passed, I learned my paternal grandfather was a P-47 Fighter Pilot in WWII.

I’ve got angels watching over me
From the other side of their earthly journey
Oh the road gets so dark
Sometimes its hard to see
But I can feel ‘em riding shotgun by my side
Like a Thunderbum roaring through the sky
The road may be dark
But I’m never alone

When I have to do hard things, I call him in. We had quite the journey together and he was a tough teacher, for which I’m grateful. I knew little of his life until I read his obituary. After some searching, I discovered that he took flak over enemy lines and managed to land his plane. Below is a photo I found of him with the plane afterwards.

He didn’t tell his stories, so I’m not going to either. But I sure do love the ones I’ve found and heard since.

Listen to Saints & Warriors Here

There are saints and warriors woven into every track on this album. Sunday Morning has a couple of each. Milton is one of them.

Album release gift

A kind soul brought me a 396th T-shirt at the album release show. They’d picked up the Thunderbum reference and started researching. My hoodie got ruined (pizza grease is vicious) and I was thrilled by the gift of a new one. So I rocked it during the Silent Disco as well.

Listen to Saints & Warriors Here

A few more scenes from the Silent Disco

This was the coolest experience I’ve had listening to music in a long time. A room full of people all listening to an album together without any distractions. You could hear a pin drop in the Flat Iron.

This album is pretty trippy. Even I heard things I had missed before. Whether you have 4 minutes or 44, grab a set of headphones. Saints & Warriors is on Bandcamp whenever you’re ready.

This Wednesday at 2pm, hear three tracks off the new album on WNCW’s New Tunes at 2. Saints & Warriors is only available on bandcamp so this is a great way to hear it first.

Tune in Here

LIVE - Last TWO shows of the Year

This Thursday, December 4th, Jess Klein and I are kicking it to Dunn, NC to play the sweetest listening room. The Bird’s Nest is an enchanting haven for music and a great place to wrap up 2025 before I hibernate for the season.

Tickets & Info

Wrapping up 2025 with a sweet songwriter series finale. Josh King & Nate Hall are joining me at the Flat Iron in Greensboro, NC, on December 16th. Tickets on sale soon. Mark your calendars and come!

Stay tuned. We’re kicking off 2026 with a special one [insert possum emoji here]!

Flat Iron Info

TWO Reviews

I didn’t see this one coming. Big thanks to Lonesome Highways for such a deep listen!

In previous decades, when classification was simpler, SAINTS & WARRIORS would likely be found in the rock section of your local record store. Dowd is a gifted storyteller who blends gentle ballads with more explosive tracks. Both vocally and lyrically, she recalls Joan Armatrading’s early career for me. Applying her skill to writing about history, the environment, and topics close to home, won me over with this impressive collection of songs. - Declan Culliton

Read the full review here

Who doesn’t love a review in Swedish?! Rootsyland gave such a nice shout out to the saints and warriors who helped make this record shine.

“In contrast to the folk-country of the previous album, the music here is instead a spacious, warm, and rich Americana with influences of both blues and soul, performed by Dowd on vocals and guitar as well as other skilled musicians like Scott Sawyer on guitars, Alex Bingham on bass/keyboards, and George Sluppick on drums.

We also get to enjoy Tamisha Waden’s and Shana Tucker’s wonderfully gospel-like backing vocals on some of the songs.” - Av Mats Carlsson

Read It Here

Hand-bound CDs w/ download codes and lyric books ONLY available here.

I have a limited run of hand-bound Saints & Warriors CDs with download codes available. They’d be cool holiday gifts, especially since this album is not available on streaming platforms.

If you would like to order one, shoot me an email at music@abigaildowd.com or message me below.

Cd’s with download codes and lyric books are $35.
Cd’s with download codes are $15

Shipping is $6.

Just like the old days, when music was special, Saints & Warriors is available exclusively on Bandcamp.

Thank you to so many of you who’ve already bought a copy.

Get your copy of Saints & Warriors

I’m also hand binding a limited number of CDs with lyric books that will be for sale at the album release show. Keep reading for all the details.

Silent Disco Album Release

Yes, you read that right. Next Tuesday, November 25th at the Flat Iron in Greensboro, we’ll put on our headphones (provided) and listen to the album together.

I’ll be playing an acoustic set of old and new songs, tell stories, hang and celebrate.

Get Tickets for the Silent Disco

ALBUM REVIEW

No Depression is one of the last independent music journals left. Having the album reviewed by their writer, Corbie Hill, was about as cool as it gets to me!

Read it here

New Lyric Video: Sister’s Heart

The first of more lyric videos to come, Sister’s Heart dropped this week. Native North Carolinians might pick up on references to Scots Irish migration from the “sister land of the longleaf pine” to the NC Sandhills and mountains.

If you want a hand bound copy of Saints & Warriors, they’ll be available at the album release show this coming Tuesday, November 25th. This is the first album release that feels 100% grassroots the way I always imagined, right down to making my CD covers and lyric books. I’ve lived every song on the album and have come out feeling more joyful and human than ever. See y’all at the show.

Get Tickets for the Silent Disco

I know from experience that when you have neighbors like Bonnie & Terry, it’s damn near impossible to lose hope. And they could use support right now.

GOFUNDME FOR TERRY

They’re the neighbors who have the spare key to our house, who I call to let our dog out when we’re running late; the neighbors who host the epic neighborhood Mardi Gras party every year; and who I called when my mother-in-law passed. I knew I needed someone to know that our world had just been turned upside down. We came home that night to a fresh-out-of the oven pasta dish, bottle of wine and sympathy card on the counter. Our dog had also been fed.

To say that they have made me a better human is an understatement. I am still learning from them what it means to be a neighbor. They are a glue that holds and connects a whole community of us together.

GOFUNDME FOR TERRY

Behind Beautiful Day

I wrote Beautiful Day on their front porch. Without Bonnie & Terry, this song would not exist. I think it is fair to say that this has been my signature song. It gets requested at every show, and I sing it to myself on days when I feel like I’m climbing up a mountain. It reminds me of the neighbors who literally gave me shelter in a storm that I couldn’t see my way out of.

From September 2018 to December 2019, hurricanes and heavy rains turned our home into a bridge over sewage-soaked mud. It didn’t take long for my respiratory system to turn into a war zone.

Word got around in the neighborhood about the lady living in a tent in her backyard (that’s me). Bonnie called from two doors down as soon as she heard. “We have a guest room upstairs that is all yours. It’s getting cold outside and you can’t keep sleeping in that tent.”

I moved in with Bonnie and Terry and their two kids that night. This wasn’t a long weekend houseguest kind of thing. For five weeks, they made their home, my home. Clearly someone who would move into a tent in the backyard is not well versed in the art of asking for help. When I tell you that there was not a moment, not a split second, that I felt like a burden or uncomfortable, this is a testament to who Bonnie and Terry are.

Prayers & Support for Terry

Two weeks ago, word got around that the Mardi Gras party was cancelled. Terry was diagnosed with cancer a few days later, and has been at Duke for over a week now.

One of my first thoughts was how much I loved sitting on that front porch late one night listening to him talk about his Dad, about Jon Prine, and about this whole being human thing. Terry and Bonnie are two of the most incredible humans I know. They make every day a more beautiful day.

If you are the praying type, wrap them around him and their family. If you’re the giving type, and especially if you’ve found comfort in the song Beautiful Day, here’s a GoFund me set up for Terry so they can go back to throwing Mardi Gras parties, not worrying about medical bills.

GOFUNDME FOR TERRY

The world is so unpredictable and there is so much we can’t control. What we can control is how we treat each other. I guarantee you that my neighbors and I don’t think, feel, vote, and believe the same way on everything. Yet, there’s never been anything that has divided us. We are neighbors. We’re each other’s people, the tribe we’ve been given to share land with. We show up for each other. I recently moved from the neighborhood and they are still my neighbors.

Say hi to your neighbors. Make sure you have their number and they have yours. At least learn each other’s names.

I started this Substack because I crave community, especially now that I’m not living in the old ‘hood. I want you to meet Bonnie and Terry because they set the bar high for me on what community means. And it’s that spirit that I aim to weave into this space.

Got any good neighbor stories? Comment away. We could all use a reminder of how to reconnect again.

Beautiful Day

Outside my window its a beautiful day
I ought to go out for awhile
Call up a friend, lean on a stranger
I could sure use a smile

On this beautiful day
Beautiful day outside

Mama called this morning but I didn’t answer
Didn’t have the heart to say
That I’ve been feeling kind of lonely
Sometimes I get blue
And mama’s try to make it all okay

They want everyday to be a beautiful day
Beautiful day outside

Do you ever get lonely
And wonder how much farther you can go
Do you think you’re the only one who knows
Friend I know

I have seen darkness
I’ve got shadows inside
But I hold on for the light
I have never known a sorrow that didn’t make me stronger
There’s never been a day that the sun don’t rise

And bring a beautiful day
Beautiful day outside

So hold on my friend
No one sees clearly in the dark
Even the longest nights are just the start
Of a beautiful day
Beautiful day
Oh a beautiful day outside

I often wonder if the energy of the days of the week is so well laid out that it's possible to find balance when we fall into the flow. You can feel it, right? Each one is a little different, aligning with a distinct god or goddess, the sun or the moon.1

If someone asks me to meet for coffee, teach a class, or if I need to focus and get sh*t done, I consider the groove of each day and fill my weekly dance card accordingly.

Centered below is exactly what I’ve got written in my calendar, set to repeat every week so I never have to hunt for it. You’re welcome to it.

Hilma af Klint’s work illustrates this post. She’s definitely an artist to dive into for channeling energy.

Subscribe now

Monday (Moon Day) - latin: lunae

Ditch manic Mondays, it’s Moonday, the day of emotions and intuition. This day sets the tone for the week. Allow things to take the time they take, breathe, and get inspired.

I like to make my bank deposits on Mondays because a cup of coffee after lunch and a leisurely drive to the bank sets a nice tone. Easy money. Cha-ching!

Tuesday (Mars Day) - latin: martis

Now we begin! The day of Mars and the Norse God Tyr is all about making decisions and taking action. The intention setting of Monday will pay off on Tuesday because it’s time to roll and you’ve got clarity. Ride the Mars wave of courage and determination and be sure to physically move your body. There can be extra fire in your belly on a Tuesday.

Wednesday (Mercury Day) - latin: mercurii

We Need to Talk. I take this one seriously because it’s easy for me to work alone for days, or fall into conversation and lose track of time. So Wednesday is my networking day when I give myself permission to meet up for lunch or coffee. It’s also when I make important phone calls or have conversations I’ve been dreading.

Mercury brings the energy of easeful communication. It’s also a day of balance between work and relaxation.

Thursday (Thorsday/Joves Day) - latin: jovis

Named after the Norse god Thor, or in the Romance languages Jupiter/Jove, this is a day for expansion, seeking higher truth, and fruitfulness.

Friday (Venus Day) - latin: veneris

There’s a reason why Friday night is date night: it’s Venus day. It’s a day for being creative, wrapping up finances, eating dessert, and love.

Saturday (Saturn day) - latin: sabbatum (also Sabbath day)

In my house growing up, Dad called Saturday’s “Field Day.” It’s a grounded day to clean the house, tackle big projects, work in the garden, and get caught up. Saturn energy is powerful. He was the god of agriculture, harvest and time. So lean in. This one isn’t for laying around.

Sunday (Sun day) - latin: solis

Knowing that I can go slower on Moonday helps me get out all my energy on Sunday! There’s so much potential for joy when I don’t dread the day to come. Do what you love and have fun!

Subscribe now

Paintings by Hilma Af Klint

Swedish painter Hilma Af Klint ((1862-1944) “worked to make the invisible, visible.”2 After a solid, traditional background at the Royal Academy of Painting in Stockholm - began to channel with higher spiritual entities and was a pioneer of abstract painting. She’s still quite unknown, in part, because she requested that her family keep her work private until 20 years after her death. It was 42 years after she died before her work was first exhibited.

This short video from a past Guggenheim exhibit is a great place to start learning about her and her truly mystical work:

‘Planets, Gods and Weekdays’

A Poem by Isabella Simmonds* from The Society of Classical Poets

Alarms are snoozed, and Monday’s born.
A few more snores as dreams are shorn,
And sleep is corked by clanging horn;
The moon’s bereft,
Her silver day now dimmed and worn
By weekly theft.

A remnant fire of Mars appears,
Now Tuesday steers earth’s working gears.
Electric hums replacing spears
Of war-drunk men;
Impatience pushing pioneers
To win again.

Emails are tapped with flying speeds,
Winged Mercury is Wednesday’s seeds.
Caduceus in hand, he leads
The letters sent
From keyboard texts and Twitter feeds
That blow and vent.

With Jupiter the giant next,
It’s Thursday with a hammer flexed.
Expanding buildings unperplexed
To raze the small,
While thunder booms when Thor is vexed
Inside his hall.

But Friday has a loving hold,
In arms that Venus warms from cold.
A sister planet shining gold,
She sweetens heads
To evening walks and sheets unrolled
On feather beds.

Abundant cupboards, fridges stocked,
It’s Saturday, and roads are blocked
With shoppers spending wages clocked,
And Saturn grins
On party feasts while floors are rocked
By dancing spins.

The hours have ticked to sunny ends,
And Sunday’s rest, to drift with friends,
As bells are rung, a hymn ascends,
And folk are free;
Until the working week descends,
There’s time for tea.

*Isabella Simmonds is a British musician and piano teacher living in London.

I’d love to hear what happens if you lean into the rhythm of the gods and goddesses of the sky. Everyday, of course, is Earth day.

Subscribe now

Good morning! Welcome to my cozy new space where I hope you’ll find inspiration, joy and community, things I’ve been craving more of.

I’d like this to feel like coming over for a cuppa. I’ve got a fresh pot of ginger, fennel and licorice tea on the stove. A French playlist is turned down low enough for conversation, and the lingering snow outside is filling the room with blue sun beams. Warmed homemade biscuits with raspberry jam are boosting my culinary confidence, and as soon as I finish every crumb there will be ballroom dancing with bunny ears on, because that’s what's really going on over here.

Years ago, I took a workshop with voice and performance coach, Ron Browning. He is a wizard. “Be joyful!,” he beamed as we raised our arms over our heads, shook our whole bodies, and dangled over our toes. We were under his spell, buzzing notes through our lips like horses. “You must remember to have fun!”

He told us about Allison Kraus coming to him when she was having voice issues. He could see how tense she was. It’s more their story to tell than it is mine, so I’ll leave it at this: before he helped her sing again, he reintroduced her to having fun. Their sessions in remembering how to do this, he said, culminated in taking her ballroom dancing with bunny ears on. It’s a lot of pressure to take ourselves so seriously all the time. She tells her own funny story about working with Ron here.

I woke up on New Year’s Day realizing that discipline and excellence have become shadowy-figured drill sergeants (seriously, I often catch them standing at the foot of my bed in the morning with a clipboard and whistle) rather than the motivating Rocky Balboa-like side kicks they used to be. So I’ve given them special leave. I am on a recruitment mission for more rhythm and joy. Anyone else feel this?

I’m reminded below of the exhilaration it will be when these find their balance again.

So, let’s go dancing. With rhythm, joy and bunny ears, and see where a renewed sense of wonder will lead.