Benjamin Tod is an American singer-songwriter from Tennessee and performs with his Lost Dog Street Band.
Tod’s songwriting is often inspired by the time he spent on the road. In his youth, he experienced wanderlust and battled with his addictions. Luckily, this brave man came out as a winner. He’s on his way to full recovery now and bares it all in the songs he writes.
“Using Again” is just one song like that, recorded on YouTube channel GemsOnVHS.
From hopping trains, doing drugs, surviving chaos, and dealing with his son’s friend’s suicide, Tod made it through to recovery and reported on his experiences.
Tod has surely lived a lot in his lifetime.
He left school, spent a lot of time with train riders, and learned the rules of the road. The troubled musician met drugs and chaos at an early age. Tod married at 17 and his wife Ashley Mae started performing with him. They soon met another couple, Shannon Jae and Nicholas Rideout, and formed a street quartet. Unfortunately, Rideout died by suicide, leaving all three in pain and despair.
The reality of living with addiction hit Tod hard and took a toll on his work.
The man has been to hell and back, and something good came out of it. His recent work is mature, raw, and extremely emotional. Tod’s songs show how it feels to walk through the dark. However, Tod still brings new inspiration to every song he does. He’s living proof that a man is not lost just because he took a few wrong steps. There’s always a way to come back.
“Using Again” shows the world the dark side of relapse.
Battling with any addiction is hard, painful, and hopeless at times.
The battle is filled with bad days, self-destruction, and a lack of motivation, but it shall all pass. Tod wrote a perfect song to bring the whole story closer to us. We can hear the despair in his voice when remembering bad times and feel the weight of his life experiences. We see a man fresh from his fight, scarred, but ready to keep going. Anyone who’s dealt with his demons can relate to Tod’s powerful song. It’s normal to feel ashamed and in lack of self-control.
Tod did one of the hardest things for a songwriter—he bared his innermost emotions, fears, doubts, regrets, failures, and truths for the world to see.
In all, he has a spectacular voice and it was a moving performance.
As soon as Tod voices the first word, the emotions flow out of him naturally, flooding the space around him and allowing us to feel every line of the song. “I wish I was who I appear” is one that strikes most of all. Despite the sad subject matter, it’s a good thing that music is ready to welcome someone back with a golden voice, a man who learned his lessons and stayed strong.
A fresh start with “A Heart Of Gold Is Hard To Find” album.
Tod has had significant success with his Lost Dog Street Band and released a few albums through crowdfunding platforms.
In 2017, Tod began his solo career and released “A Heart Of Gold Is Hard To Find” in 2019. Since it was released, the video got eight million YouTube views in three years. We’re proud of Tod and wish him luck with future work and plans—most of all, we hope he’ll also be proud of the man in the mirror!
Check out the full performance in the link below:
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