Victoria, BC Folk Artist Tobacco & Rose Explores Love and Spirituality in Cinematic New Single “Tara”
Songs having dual meanings are rare. But when put in the right hands of a talented singer-songwriter, those songs can sound effortless and incredibly easy on the ears. For Richard Moody, recording under the moniker Tobacco & Rose, he’s crafted a stellar single, “Tara.” It’s a gentle, alluring tune that could be thought of as a traditional love song. Yet for Tobacco & Rose, the song — the first single from the forthcoming album Tobacco & Rose — has a deeper, spiritually tinged resonance.
“‘Tara’ is a repurposed love song,” the musician says. “I wrote the first few lines for a crush that quickly dissipated and later completed it and dedicated it to the Buddhist deity Tara, the goddess of compassion and action. The song is reflective of my beginner’s take on Buddhism, and a reminder to myself to think and act with courage, compassion, and equanimity. And if listeners hear it as a good old-fashioned love song, that’s okay too.”
Tobacco & Rose wrote, recorded, engineered, and produced “Tara” on Vancouver Island. The single has a gorgeous, hushed tone throughout while also creating a style that is equally cinematic and majestic. “Tara” is terribly attractive, drawing the listener in instantly with a simple but strong vocal, some almost hypnotic acoustic guitar, and a rich but sparse background. The sonic jewel brings to mind obvious touchstones like the immortal Nick Drake while also recalling James Yorkston, Richard Thompson, and other great contemporaries of classic British folk. Violins can be heard while bassist Joey Smith adds a delicate touch throughout.
“Tara” is the first single from the forthcoming nine-song self-titled debut album by Tobacco & Rose. Featuring musicians such as guitarist Luke Doucet and drummer Barry Mirochnick on the Celtic folk-leaning “Broken Angel,” the album also includes bassists Smith and Scott White, Peter Dowse on electric bass, drummer and organist Joby Baker, and pedal steel player Tyler Lieb. Other musicians on the album include drummer Kelby MacNayr and pianist Adrian Dolan. Tobacco & Rose wrote all the songs, including the calming, tranquil “You and I” and the exquisite “Where My Lover Goes,” the closing track that would find itself near Springsteen’s “Secret Garden” and “If I Should Fall Behind” for its spine-tingling, heart-tugging effect.
Tobacco & Rose’s backstory is a long and winding road. Richard Moody studied classical viola in France in his teens, but as the 1990s commenced, he would tour with Manitoba-based folk-rock group Acoustically Inclined. He performed with countless musicians, including Stephen Fearing, The Wailin’ Jennys, and The Bills, among others. However, the success wasn’t fulfilling Moody, resulting in him becoming a yoga instructor for several years but never far from being a “musician-for-hire.”
The musician, searching for deeper meaning, discovered ayahuasca, a plant-based medicine from the Amazon. Traveling to Peru seven years ago, and meeting Shipibo shamans, the experience — which included participating in some traditional ceremonies — left him writing a large batch of songs, some found on this forthcoming self-titled debut. “I felt like I was not the writer, but an open channel, and that the plant was speaking through me.” The moniker also celebrates the use of the tobacco plant for prayer and meditation, not to “glorify cigarette smoking.”
Now with Tobacco & Rose and the new single “Tara,” fans of great, traditional folk music should seek out this song immediately. It’s a brilliant new folk song that harkens back to the work of the late Drake, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan.
“The music itself is a nod to the classic singer-songwriters, with what I hope is a sophisticated harmony, arrangement and orchestration that honour my own musical past and upbringing.”
Hi Richard! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers?
Good to meet you! Thanks for doing this! I’m a long-time professional musician, originally from Winnipeg, but I have been living on Vancouver Island for 13 years now. I’ve worked as a session and touring player, and I’ve also played a lot of jazz violin, but my most recent passion project is a group of songs inspired by the natural world, plant medicine, and spirituality. I also love coffee, working out, and tennis.
“Tara” started as a love song before transforming into a tribute to the Buddhist deity Tara. Can you talk about what led to that shift in meaning?
I heard that Bob Dylan downplayed his songwriting prowess to Joni Mitchell once, saying that he just wrote down random ideas and put them in box. She countered that his brilliance was in how he put together all the ideas from that box. Anyhow, this was one of the ideas I had put into my own (much more humble) box, and I pulled it out and used it for this tribute to Buddhism and to my own path of spiritual seeking. From one love song to another, you might say. I am really a beginner Buddhist, but I really appreciate the value of kindness that Buddhism espouses. Also, the way it says that conventional reality, or samsara, makes us suffer, and that the recognition of true reality, which is connected inextricably to our own Karma, will bring us true happiness.
Your music blends traditional folk with a cinematic, almost meditative quality. How did your experiences with Buddhism and ayahuasca influence the sound and themes of this album?
I’m a bit shy to talk about it, but my experience with ayahuasca influenced the writing of every single song on the record. Some of them were even conceived on the ceremony floor in Peru. That’s the stripped-down part. That medicine can temporarily divert you from some of your more well-worn neuro-pathways and open you to new ways of hearing and imagining things.
And I guess as someone who has dabbled in awareness practices all his life, and as someone who has an interest in plant medicine and healing in general, I want the sound that I and others hear to be medicinal in a way: inspiring, but also pleasing to the ear and maybe balancing and healing to the nervous system. I used to play rock and roll too, but have mostly left that behind for more lush, soothing, and as you say, meditative arrangments and instrumentation.
You recorded “Tara” on Vancouver Island, and the album features an incredible lineup of musicians, including Luke Doucet and Barry Mirochnick. What was the recording process like, and how did these collaborations shape the final product?
I love collaborating, and I love every single note that any of these musicians contributed to this record. But actually for this project, it was so inward focussed and also budget restricted so that a lot of it was me and my guitar finding the perfect take and then moving out and having others add to that foundation. Next time I want to really have a bunch of players in a room making live music together. On this first endeavor, the live magic was in my voice and guitar interacting; other layers were added from there.
The album draws from songs written after your time in Peru with Shipibo shamans. Can you share how those ceremonies impacted your creative process and the way you view music?
Those dudes work with plants, many different plants with many different characteristics and purposes. In their incredibly sophisticated view, plants have consciousness. So they get their participants working with plants, and that work will shift the consciousness of the participant. As an artist, I found those shifts in awareness very inspiring, both lyrically and musically. It’s not a path for everyone, though. It’s a strange world down there, with lots of darkness too, and I no longer idealize it. However, I am very grateful to have gone down there and a few times and met some of the good ones