Ruth Moody is at pains to make clear that having released her solo debut, The Garden, this summer doesn’t mean she’s frustrated being a member of the Wailin’ Jennys. She’s wanted to make an album of her own songs for many years, and the timing was perfect for the three-woman acoustic band.

“I love collaborating with Nicky [Mehta] and Heather [Masse] but it’s good to take the driver’s seat and just change the angle with which you approach music,” says Moody, reached at her home in Winnipeg, where the Wailin’ Jennys are based. “Nicky wanted to start a family and we took a break from the road. I knew it was my chance—it was logistically good and I felt a need to express myself in a different way.”

Not that The Garden represents a radical departure from Moody’s work on the Jennys’ two studio recordings, 40 Days and Firecracker. Her skill as a composer has been clear since she earned a place in the semifinals of the 2005 International Songwriting Competition for her song “One Voice”, now a signature piece for the Jennys. Her new material is a similar blend of folk, old-time, bluegrass, and country, with elements of pop.

But Moody pushes herself further as an artist, playing several instruments—piano, guitar, banjo, and ukulele—on the 12 original songs. To help her out, she enlisted a stellar clutch of musicians, including Matt Peters of Winnipeg rock band the Waking Eyes, who cowrote and sings on the folk-poppy “We Can Only Listen”. Others who came onboard were Toronto axeman Kevin Breit and indie-rock guitarist Luke Doucet. Moody’s arrangements are spare, highlighting her soft, lightly smoky, and agile soprano and helping to create The Garden’s gentle, meditative ambiance.

The Garden’s title cut is a beautiful, banjo-driven song with an upbeat country flavour where Moody is backed by New England alt-bluegrass quintet Crooked Still, and sings harmonies with the band’s singer Aoife O’Donovan, a friend of hers. “The song is about an awakening to the idea that nature is our best teacher, and it’s also rooted in one of the themes from [18th-century French writer] Voltaire’s book Candide: ”˜Il faut cultiver son jardin’—you have to cultivate your garden, make your little corner of the world more beautiful. I think we all have a responsibility to do that, and it’s something I try to remember.”

Ruth Moody plays St. James Hall on Friday (November 5).