Benjamin Tod

Benjamin Tod’s eyes light up when asked what it’s like to finally embrace happiness and accept love. “I’m kind of settling into allowing myself to be happy,” he 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.”

That shift is evident in Shooting Star, his 2024 album that marked a bold departure from his signature raw minimalism. “This record is so unusual for what I do,” he says. “It’s almost a spite album, to prove what I can do as a writer in whatever medium I step into.” The result is a striking evolution in sound that remains anchored in truth.

Tod came of age in the margins of Music City, busking on Lower Broadway and playing Woody Guthrie and Jim Ringer songs for spare change. He remembers being kicked out of Robert’s Western World or Layla’s more times than most regulars had before they turned 20. That rebellious spirit is still present, but it now lives beside a quiet steadiness.

His latest release, the dual version single “Goner” and “Goner (Live & Alone),” continues that growth. One version is cinematic and fully arranged, the other stripped and intimate. Together, they capture a songwriter stepping fully into his voice, unafraid to let both complexity and clarity coexist.