Tomorrow (October 18), Benjamin Tod will release his highly-anticipated honky tonk album Shooting Star, marking a major shift in sound for the Nashville native. Today, American Songwriter is proud to premiere the album’s title track. Listen to “Shooting Star” a day early below.
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Much of Shooting Star is a large sonic shift from the string band music he’s made with Lost Dog Street Band or the acoustic songs from his solo albums. Interestingly, the title track is the closest in style to what fans have come to expect from Tod over the years. However, the fact that it is a stylistic outlier makes it a fitting focus track for an album from a songwriter who has often found himself in that position.
Earlier this week, Tod took a moment to exclusively tell American Songwriter about the track.
Benjamin Tod on “Shooting Star”
“‘Shooting Star’ became the title track of the Honky Tonk record, somehow. It is quite obviously the odd man out stylistically for the record, but it still defines the narrative,” Benjamin Tod explained.
“I’ve felt like an outsider in my hometown since I was first getting kicked out of Robert’s on Lower Broad when I was 15. Now that Nashville has become the national destination spot for coastal elites, it feels more than right stepping back in to remind people that the desperate lonesome drifters they wouldn’t dare offer up a seat at the bar for built this town,” he added. “This song is a message that we’re still here and all the money and artificial intelligence in the world can’t replace us just yet.”
More About Shooting Star
Benjamin Tod grew up in Nashville, surrounded by country music history. Like most young people, he shunned the things that lay at the heart of his hometown. With some time away from Music City, more than a decade as a professional musician, and countless life changes, he recently started to come around to the sound that built his hometown.
In an statement earlier this year, he talked about the genesis of the new record. “That sound was always on the tip of my tongue, but it wasn’t until about five or six years ago when I started getting back into my roots, really listening to country again, and enjoying honky tonk,” he shared. “This record feels like a homecoming.”
Shooting Star hits streaming platforms and record store shelves tomorrow (October 18).
Featured Image by Stephen J. Cohen/Getty Images
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