A 30-year veteran of the Canadian music scene, Richard Moody has toured the world with such luminaries as Deva Premal, Miten, The Wailin’ Jennys, Steven Fearing, and The Bills. Tobacco & Rose is his solo project: a collection of songs, inspired in part by experience with psychedelic and medicinal plants from the Amazon and the Pacific Northwest.

After years of study in classical viola in France as a teenager, Richard found himself unexpectedly thrust into the club scene of the early nineties, touring across Canada with seminal Manitoban folk-rock group Acoustically Inclined and offering his instrumental skills on hundreds of different recordings by artists in a variety of styles.

Despite a certain amount of success, Richard felt that there was something missing from life, and this led him on multiple trips to India to study yoga and yogic philosophy. He spent several years as a yoga teacher in Canada, all the while keeping up his work as a musician-for-hire.

Then in a later period of meaning-seeking, Richard was introduced to the Amazonian plant-medicine ayahuasca, and he had the privilege of traveling to Peru to experience the mind-blowing, non-ordinary realities experienced by the Shipibo shamans of the upper Amazon. These shamans work with a variety of master plants used for healing and teaching, and they treat their patients with plants appropriate to their condition. It was Richard’s exposure to a few such plants that led to the writing of dozens of songs, many of them featured in this self-titled debut recording, Tobacco & Rose. Richard cheekily calls the music “plant-based,” and many of the individual songs are in praise of, and indeed inspired by, a relationship with an individual plant. He states, “I often felt like I was not the writer, but an open channel, and that the plant was speaking through me.” This is, in fact, how many indigenous healers and shamans describe their own healing songs.

Says Richard, “The writing of these songs was a transformational, alchemical process, and they gave a sense of direction and purpose, but it wasn’t always easy. Some of it involved processing and releasing dark thoughts and patterns. The song ‘Broken Angel’ tells the story of writhing in agony on the ayahuasca ceremony floor, processing the suicide of a close friend. ‘Bride of Suffering’ is a somber ballad about attachment to suffering and how addictively comfortable that can be. But ultimately, the overarching feeling of the record is one of hope, of opening to our somatic selves, and of reconnection with nature. ‘Wooded Vale,’ written at a 10-day silent retreat, describes the bliss of simply sitting in the natural beauty of an island on the Salish sea and noting the wonder of the natural world as it unfolds. ‘Tara’ speaks of our ability to arrive at a place of happiness and equanimity, as we find peace in our hearts and minds.”

Tobacco & Rose is an effort to integrate twin passions of music and healing, and to imbue music with meaning that uplifts and inspires. The lyrics speak of a spirituality grounded in the natural world, in the body, and in authentic practice. At the same time, the musical aspect draws from more traditional western influences, ranging from the counterpoint of J. S. Bach to the chord progressions of a golden age of popular song. They feature Richard’s sophisticated finger-style acoustic guitar approach and owe a debt to the lineage of ’60s and ’70s greats like Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell. Many have drawn comparisons between Richard and the English folk magic of Nick Drake.

For US publicity:

krista.mettler@skyemediaonline.com www.skyemediaonline.com

For Canadian publicly:

eric@thatericalper.com www.thatericalper.com

All other inquiries:

tobaccoandrosemusic@gmail.com