Set to release March 28th, 2025 on MANIMAL RECORDS

ABOUT

Canadian-American songwriter Tara Beier is embracing life as a whole. With her fourth full-length album, Mourning Dove, the low-key, fiercely female indie-folk artist showcases the kind of clarity that only comes from facing the unknown. 

Produced by Nashville’s Steve Stout (Lifehouse) and recorded at LA’s Village Studios and Goat Mountain Recording Studios in Landers, CA, Mourning Dove balances Beier’s subtly powerful vocals and distilled lyrical reflections with sparse and often minimalist production. (See the elegant, anthemic chorus of semi-autobiographical single “Rocketdyne”: In the desert, I hide / In the desert, I survive.) Named in tribute to the familiar bird’s melancholic song as well as its rich spiritual symbolism, it’s an album of healing, where moments of raw vulnerability are set against a textural, atmospheric backdrop. The resulting music sounds like a newer, more pure kind of freedom. 

Beier relocated from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree (or, as she likes to say, “escaped the city for the desert”) with her family in 2023, seeking a safe place to recover from several traumatic life changes as well as environmental stressors. There, she began writing the ten tracks that would help her navigate the mess and eventually become Mourning Dove. Mourning the loss of a loved one in the dry, martian landscape of the Joshua Tree Desert felt appropriate.

Born in Vancouver and trained in classical piano since age five, Beier’s unique sound blends the rebellious spirit of 90s feminist alt-rockers with folky narrative storytelling and a touch of pop sheen. She’s known for supporting other women: Her 2022 EP Her Story celebrated the contributions of 1960s and 1970s female folk artists with idiosyncratic covers of Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Sibylle Baier, and Barbara Keith. In addition to forming a deep emotional connection with her audience, Beier’s songs have earned international radio play as well as sync placements and  were used in President Biden’s Nurses Campaign to promote mask-wearing during Covid. Beier also graced the cover of Harper’s Bazaar in while pregnant with her twins.

Beier is inspired by the sleek femininity of pop-leaning artists like Annie Lennox as well as alt-folk songwriters who balance the gritty with the poetic, including Big Thief’s Adrianne Lenker and Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy. Originally a filmmaker, she’s been honing her idiosyncratic style of fearless, unabashedly feminine indie-rock for nearly a decade, playing festivals across North America and releasing three well-received full-length indie albums since 2016. There’s a raw urgency paired with a kind of laid-back expertise in Beier’s music, simultaneously evoking Fiona Apple’s angry vulnerability, Sheryl Crow’s loose, easy confidence, and Kate Bush’s ethereal brilliance. Beier’s music is hyper-feminine, but pared down and wearing ripped jeans. 

Where she expected to get a little rest, Beier found genuine healing. “In the desert, it never rains,” she says. “So when it does, it’s a miracle.” That unique mixture of surprise and comfort—or what one might feel watching a sudden rainstorm sweep across the desert—is the kind of mystical, dichotomous emotion at the heart of Mourning Dove, both thematically and musically. “I don’t see the desert as some kind of empty, rock-bottom,” says Beier. “I see it as a turning point. It’s the place we go to slow down, sit in silence, and start to heal ourselves.”

ig: @tarabeier I wikipedia

THE SONGS

RAINBOW: An indie-rock anthem about finding your own way and making your own rules, “Rainbow” feels aptly and pleasantly contained—like a fish in a tank of its own design. It’s lo-fi, clean, and slightly retro-psychedelic in the vein of acts like Babe Rainbow, Dean & Britta, and Tennis, and the chorus overflows with genuine charm and perfectly balanced male and female vocal harmonies. “Rainbow” was inspired by a real therapeutic practice that entails creating a spectrum or “rainbow” of boundaries. “It’s a way of arranging the relationships in your life with purpose,” says Beier. “Instilling boundaries like this—by mindfully choosing to hold people closer or farther away, depending on how safe you feel in any particular relationship—can actually help keep people in your life.” In other words, it’s not about pushing people away; It’s about respecting what you need, and teaching the people who love you to respect the boundaries you put in place. Equally thoughtful and balanced, the track’s mix creates an old-timey duet feel reminiscent of the balanced chorus in Big Thief's “Masterpiece,” with lazy slide guitar (recorded through a battery-powered Templo NOMAD amp) forming a moody backdrop where the crisp vocal layers seem to float. “The question the song poses is Where Do You Fit on My Rainbow?” says Beier. “In other words: What color/position should you take?  How close or how far away do you belong in my life?”

ROCKETDYNE: The first track written for Mourning Dove, Rocketdyne is a tone-setter, channeling a kind of laid-back, desert cool in the vein of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and the bluesy, cinematic world of Daisy Jones and the Six. “It’s a story about escaping Los Angeles in search of peace, quiet, and healing,” Beier says. “I moved my entire family to Joshua Tree a few years ago to live a healthier life, but the desert taught me more than I could have ever imagined.” With a subtle and steadily driving beat, the chorus repeats the alternating lines, “In the desert, I hide” and “In the desert, I survive,” forming an inspired, autobiographical anthem that feels both easygoing and deeply contemplative. “It’s about taking time out of your busy life to explore new territory and learn to really see yourself,” says Beier. Sometimes you have to hide out for a while to make space for your dreams to thrive. 

LOST BROTHER: This track introduces some darker themes into Beier’s characteristically smooth songwriting, taking the album in a slightly noisier, more raw direction both emotionally and sonically. The lyrics recount the story of Beier’s grandmother, who lost her brother as a teenager in the woods of British Columbia decades before Beier’s birth. Lost Brother was written as part of the grieving process and a way to keep her grandmother’s memory alive: It’s an homage and a celebration of closure. Laced with elegant patches of static and moments of minor dissonance, the track incorporates low Jazzmaster guitars and dual vocals in the chorus, evoking a sort of rough-around-the-edges honesty reminiscent of alt rockers like The Kills, The Breeders, and Neil Young. 

CLOSE THE DOOR: Driving and pleasantly upbeat, this track feels like the theme song from a slightly spacier, alternate version of Thelma and Louise. It’s atmospheric yet simple, somehow both devastating and nonchalant. “I wrote this song while cleaning out the shed out back one summer,” says Beier. “Sometimes you need to clear out and make space, even if it feels tedious, or difficult, or painful. Sometimes you have to close the door.” The lyrics offer a lighthearted, slightly cheeky take on a substantial, very human challenge: How to let go? As the chorus incants, simply, “I close the door,” electric guitars bend in the background like branches refusing to let go of the wind they hold. Imagine combining feelings of loss with a determined decision to turn away from what no longer serves you. Now imagine someone with Tom Petty’s narrative chops and a voice like Norah Jones turning that blended feeling into a catchy, alt-pop-meets-Americana anthem. 

WE ARE TOGETHER: Inspired after the birds Beier raised the summer she composed the album, “We Are Together” is a song of hope and unity. “The Mourning Dove symbolizes the miraculous comfort of peace in the midst of grief. It’s a sign of loved ones returning,” she says. The mother of twins herself, Beier felt a deep sense of connection to her doves; they were good companions as she grieved the loss of her grandmother, and they proceeded to lay eggs in pairs, two by two—a trait particular to the species. “It felt like a message from my grandmother, saying she is here with me. I believe those we’ve lost are still with us, still speaking to us like this. I wanted to acknowledge that sense of close, ongoing connection.” The title track opens with a sparse, straightforward rhythm backing the signature smoothness of Beier’s vocals. But the landscape soon starts to shift, as the track blooms into a lush, melodic soundscape complete with bending electric guitars and layered vocal harmonies. Beier delivers the kind of un-self-consciously cool vocals characteristic of Jess Williamson and vintage Sheryl Crow, while the synths and raking strings woven into the chorus background were inspired in part by George Harrison’s similarly metaphysical “My Sweet Lord.” What begins as a song about loss expands into a song of togetherness, as the chorus arrives with a rush of soothing harmonies that feel as relieving as the “desert rain” they describe. “It’s about celebrating a sense of  connection—even in the face of what looks like utter loss,” says Beier. “It’s about the miracle of rain in the desert, and the fact that we are never alone.”

DESERT SOUL: A sister track to the more somber narrative “Lost Brother,” this deceptively upbeat single pulls from similarly dark, Southern folk-rock influences (The Kills, Nick Cave) to examine the raw and complicated beauty of life. “I was reading Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist while writing this, so I was grappling with spiritual depth and thinking a lot about the soul or core of things as I encountered them,” says Beier. Dissonant and effortless, “Desert Soul” creates an eerily danceable sonic landscape: Imagine the perfect anthem for a group of skeletons dancing together in the desert sunset. This is that anthem, featuring an undeniably catchy chorus that repeats with increasing melodic urgency: “This is the soul…/This is the soul of the desert.” It’s a song about digging deep, discovering ways to grow spiritually, and finding satisfaction in what is. It’s a song about how to be an artist. 

 SHOOTING STAR: A bright, slyly upbeat single, “Shooting Star” feels like a sharp ray of sunshine shot through a gap in the trees. “I wrote this after watching a meteor shower one night with friends,” says Beier. “One friend kept getting distracted by talking about the kinds of things that can really bring down the whole group— infighting, taxes, politics, that kind of thing. We almost missed the whole point of being together, sitting under the stars that evening. I don’t want missing the point to be so easy.” Part anthem about chasing your dreams, part lesson in approaching life fully conscious, the song’s lyrics encourage open awareness and raw vulnerability—both skills required for engaging with beauty in nature and the world around us. “These things are what make us flexible…make us stronger, if we can get ourselves to see it that way,” says Beier. There’s a pinch of 90s-alt-rock songstress here, emphasized by the unique production, which evokes Mazzy Star’s hazy-lucid emotional soundscaping. It’s the perfect track for a long, solo drive down the coast at dusk—a reminder to look up at the shooting stars firing just over your head, before you miss it all.

LOST IN DEATH VALLEY: A downtempo alt-country anthem laced with a wild softness, “Lost in Death Valley” evokes the kind of rugged emotional landscapes normally associated with acts like Wilco, Will Oldham, and Kevin Morby. Made more lucid and slightly more tender here, Beier’s take on the desert death song features her own inquisitive, delicately layered vocals front-and-center. The narrative lyrics recount the story of a woman and her daughter who became lost in the Death Valley desert. The minor key and sparse instrumentation shifts around Beier’s vocal melodies like sand, only resolving intermittently. Set to sparse percussion led by a tight snare, Beier’s lyrics alternate between down-to-earth, narrative storytelling and ominous, slightly mystical warnings. “Through the grace of God, the woman and her child survived,” says Beier. “But these kinds of experiences change us, and sometimes we want to hold on to the pain or past experience. But that’s only half of the work. We’ve got to learn to pick up—whatever life throws at us—yes. But then let it go!”  

WILD REJOICE: “The Wild” feels both both carefully timed and as if it were running amok, with deft production inspired by the dance anthem “Dirge” by Death in Vegas. It’s a slow-burning and increasingly urgent ballad, and the production showcases the kind of hyper-precise, accessibly esoteric vibe Beier does so well— especially when working with Stout as a producer: Imagine the danceable energy of INXS set in a spiderweb of sonic textures. Woven with pure, open vocals and backed by upbeat electronic rhythms and gently pulsing synths, the result is an eighties-tinged, sensual banger. “We started with a Korg Drumlogue drum machine that we built real drums over later,” says Beier. “We wanted everything to eventually blend together, so the effect would be a beautiful, desert-y wash.” The resulting track (which also serves as inspo for Beier’s body spray, “Lovendar”) is complex yet wild, with a refrain calling us to “Let the Wild Rejoice.” It’s an anthem for celebrating the kind of love that recognizes no boundaries. It’s the sound of a beating heart in a free body. 

Behind the Scenes/ Recording Process

Producer Steve Stout from Nashville to Tara Beier in Joshua Tree & Los Angeles

Notable Press:

• ROLLING STONE: Tara Beier Triumphs Over Grief in New Album Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree

• HARPERS BAZAAR : Singer-Songwriter Tara Beier takes pregnancy photos to honor motherhood & follow up editorial of healthy new born twins

• AMERICAN SONGWRITER: Tara Beier Reclaims Her Life With New Song, “Free Yourself”

• ET CANADA: Tara Beier’s Song ‘Hero & The Sage’ Backs Biden’s ‘100 Days, 100 Nurses’ Campaign for Presidential Inauguration

• USA TODAY: New Album “SUPER BLOOM” by Tara Beier on Manimal Records

• GLAMOUR MAGAZINE: Watch exclusive interview + video premiere of “Hopeless Romantic”

• AMERICAN SONGWRITER: Tara Beier Cherishes The Timeless Moments On “Hopeless Romantic”

Career Highlights:

• “Hero and the Sage” was chosen by Biden’s "100 DAYS, 100 Nurses" in Celebration for the Presidential inauguration 2020

• Tara and her music has been in Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, NBC, Glamour, ET Canada, GQ, The New York Times and more.

• Featured on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar: other magazine covers including: Contrast, Luxury Trending Magazine, Showbiz Magazine, LaPalme Magazine, British Thoughts

• Super Bloom was produced in Nashville by three-time Grammy- nominated, Ken Coomer (Wilco, Uncle Tupelo) and signed to Manimal Records (Paul Beahan/ Malibu)

• Notable performances at ROCKWOOD MUSIC HALL (NY) , THE TROUBADOUR (LA), RIVERFEST (ON), CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK (TO), HOTEL CAFE (LA), JUNCTION BAR (Berlin), THE PIANO BAR (LA). THE HORSESHOE (TO, THE HUGH'S ROOM (TO)

• TV appearances: Daytime Chicago, Gayle Guyardo (WFLA Tampa) , Jason Carter Show (Miami), Amy Paffrath (Spectrum,LA)

Past Music Videos: