Win Tickets ($70): Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band: Shooting Star Tour @ Revolution Hall | Country, Folk, Guitar, Banjo, w/ Nolan Taylor

We are giving away a pair of tickets to Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band: Shooting Star Tour @ Revolution Hall on October 27. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed October 21.

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From our sponsors:
Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band: Shooting Star Tour
October 27, 2024
Doors 7PM, Show 8PM | $35 | All Ages
More info: etix.com

Revolution Hall
1300 SE Stark St., Portland, OR

Sitting at a corner café table, Benjamin Tod’s eyes light up when asked what it’s like to finally embrace happiness and accept love. With a slight grin, he sips his coffee and leans back, one arm draped casually and comfortably over the chair.

“I’m kind of settling into my age, into allowing myself to be happy,” the 33-year-old says. “For years, I led myself and the people around me into a lot of unnecessary darkness. And now, I’ve learned how to give and receive affection — it’s helped heal a lot of parts of myself.”

Tod’s demeanor is a far cry from his usual stiff posture stance with arms folded, this permeating sense of trepidation and scrutiny for what trouble may be coming down the pike. The relaxed, calm aura is a sign of a human being who has overcome lifelong personal demons, one who has finally become liberated — not only in his personal life, but also his music.

“This latest record is so unusual for what I do,” Tod says. “It’s almost a spite album, to prove what I can do as a writer in whatever medium I step into.”

Titled Shooting Star, the album carves a fresh creative path for Tod, a storied singer-songwriter and frontman of Lost Dog Street Band. The self-proclaimed “proprietor of misery,” Tod finds himself transcending into a life of gratitude, patience, and stability.

“People evolve and change. You’re growing as a person,” Tod says. “If you want to get healthier, you have to start intentionally behaving like a healthy person. You have to look around you and adapt to those things — if you don’t change your identity, it’s hard to change yourself.”

For this latest solo endeavor, Tod tapped some of Nashville’s finest to conjure country gold. Shifting from his signature somber tone of struggle and survival, Tod and his coal fire throat radiate a feeling of clarity and new beginnings in the face of adversity. The result is this intrinsic, musical crossroads — more Hank Williams than Bob Wills, more Marty Stuart than George Jones.

“Most of my career has been laser-focused on poetic, piercing songwriting in mainly a folk tradition.” Tod says. “I wanted to prove to myself and the industry that I could write an elite country record with ease. Either way, if I didn’t accomplish that goal, I sure as hell came closer than anyone on pop country radio.”