NORMAN — There’s more to Norman than can be seen in the blink it takes to pass through the town.
For Abigail Dowd, who spent punctuated periods there visiting family in her early years, the town has taken on a mythic quality as it both haunts and inspires her music. On her second album, Not What I Seem, to be released on April 5, Dowd is “shedding” the stories and leftover emotions from her past, many of which originated in Norman.
“On the first album, those songs were written while I was coming to a realization of some of the stories that I have,” she said. “The second album was more of, ‘Woah, these are the stories I have and they may or may not be reality and I can own them or not own them.’”
Sitting on The Norman Stage, Dowd can point to the house she grew up in, her uncle’s house nearby, the church where she first performed on stage, the music store her family owned where legend has it Keith Richards once bought guitar strings (a piece of family trivia Dowd said she confirmed), and a Teddy bear resembling the Grateful Dead’s bears inexplicably painted the outside of a building that became synonymous with her childhood.
She recalls the “sweetness” of picking peaches and getting covered in sand spurs on her visits, and darker times when a brutal fight broke out in her uncle’s front yard and the shadow of her grandfather’s time in the Korean War — a theme she deals with in the song “Chosin”, so-named because of his service in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
Norman, she said, “wouldn’t be so vivid to me if I hadn’t been here such a short time.” Though it had a population of 147 as of July 2018, according to NC Home Town Locator, and likely even less when Dowd was young, it seemed like a bustling, thriving place because of how tight-knit the people were.
In her music, Dowd said Norman holds a place in her mind “beyond forgiveness and judgement” because when she was young she didn’t know what was good or bad.
“There’s still a sense of awe and wonder in all of it,” she said.
Dowd was elected to the Southern Pines Town Council when she was 26 but stepped down after a year, saying that having to be so “serious” and focused on winning battles “didn’t feel right.” This sparked a radical shift in her life which saw her move to Florence, Italy and then to Maine where she began to hone her craft as a musician. Like learning a second language, Dowd said she’s now speaking with confidence about herself through her music rather than being so afraid of failing as she was throughout her 20’s.
“Being on the Town Council was really powerful for me because I had this idea that I had to be ‘successful’ and having to be ‘smart’ and be ‘right’ but what I’ve always wanted to do was pursue music,” Dowd said, noting the irony of starting music at 27 years old when so many iconic artists — known as the “27 Club” — have died at 27 after reaching the height of their fame.
Becoming an artist meant “finally enjoying playing guitar” and recording what came out when she played. If a riff sticks, the words follow but she never knows what they will be.
Now back in North Carolina having found her place in a community of musicians in Greensboro, her songs confess that she once tried to escape from her past and bring along the wisdom of someone who found only pain in that pursuit. On “Oh 95,” Dowd sings, “Oh 95, take me where this highway ends, erase my memories let me start again … I though I’d be alright if I could learn to live alone until I’m old.” She grows with each chorus, on the next saying instead “we’ll make new memories in good company of friends…” and finally “we’ve made good memories.”
This song, which she almost left off the album, was written about her time in Maine where she realized that running from herself put a distance between her and people she considered friends. Maine is where she said learned to let other people be happy without feeling jealous or threatened, a skill she practiced with her friend Amanda and the rest of the group she spent time with there.
“They really taught me how to be human … and I thought I would stay there forever,” she said. “Then I realized no, they were just really kind of like guides showing me how to go back home and live my life.”
Three songs on the record were inspired by her fixation on longleaf pine trees, a fitting theme for her performance at the Party for the Pine After Party on April 13, a celebration of Southern Pines’ oldest living longleaf pine which is turning 471 years old this year.
Asked about returning to Southern Pines, Dowd looks off into her memories, pulling together the sights and smells she missed when she left North Carolina. She associates the pines with a “quiet strength” and “resilience” which remind her that she doesn’t have to say anything, or “preach”, all the time.
“I had to go somewhere else to learn how beautiful it is here,” she said.
Dowd will also perform at Greensboro’s The Crown at The Carolina Theatre at 8 p.m. on April 6, the day after her album’s release. The Party at the Pines After Party will be held from from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. April 13 at the Meadow of the Weymouth Woods’ Boyd Tract. Call 910-692-2167 for information about the Party at the Pines performance
For more information on Dowd, visit www.abigaildowd.com.
