Benjamin Tod Vengeance and Grace
Benjamin Tod, bandleader of Lost Dog Street Band, where he played alongside his wife, fiddle player Ashley Mae, decided to put the band on an indefinite hiatus following the arrival of their first child. But it does not mean that the Tennessee native songwriter has stopped making music. After his last solo album in 2024, Shooting Star, and a series of singles produced by Shooter Jennings, Tod returns with a dual album, Vengeance and Grace (Thirty Tigers): one version backed by a full band, the other stripped down and introspective, alone with his acoustic guitar.
An opportunity for him to carry himself with a calm that feels hard-earned and to venture into the classic themes of country music—redemption, regret, but also faith and hope.
The title track, “Vengeance and Grace,” goes deeply into this thematic: “When I’m gone I may gamble with my demons / I’ll bet it all for the trial I am seeking / Like a child softly pleading / That the violence wasn’t needed after all / Torn by vengeance and grace, I learned the hard way.”
The band version is admirably pushed forward by the fiddle of Billy Contreras and the pedal steel of Tebbs Karney, while the rhythm section—Dave Racine (drums) and Paul DeFiglia (bass)—holds everything together, giving a honky-tonk feel that serves Tod’s raw, emotional delivery, without forgetting Matt Menefee (organ) and Cotton Clifton (guitar, background vocals).
Song after song, we find ourselves drawn into this melancholic journey of an outlaw, recorded and produced by Andrija Tokic at The Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN.
The “Alone” versions of songs like “End of My Rope” allow the lyrics to breathe and reveal their depth and meaning: “I live like a ghost and a stranger / It all falls apart in the end / Give me the burden of danger / I’ll carry on with a grin / It’s heavy below, I’ve got nowhere to go / The silence is clear, eternity’s near / At the end of my rope.”
Benjamin Tod is currently on tour, and if you have the opportunity to catch him, you will likely be rewarded with one of the most authentic voices in country music today. http://www.benjamintodmusic.com/
Enjoy some of our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Benjamin Tod “Shooting Star”