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Benjamin Tod & Lost Dog Street Band

After dark country trio Lost Dog Street Band released its 2022 album Glory, bandleader
Benjamin Tod decided it was time to retire the project. Tod, alongside his wife Ashley Mae
(fiddle), had been working together as a band since 2011. “I came to terms with letting go of
Lost Dog completely, which is how I evaluate a lot of things in general,” explains Tod.
“Oftentimes when I'm trying to make a really hard decision, I go ahead and go through the
process of mourning its death and accepting that I am going to lose it.” But just a month after
recording a solo project in January of 2023, Tod felt an urge to revisit the project one more time.
“I thought I was done with Lost Dog, but after recording my solo album, I looked over all the
songs that I had ready for a new record. These were songs for my band. I had to admit to
myself that I wasn't done with Lost Dog.” That energy is infectious throughout the album,
beginning with opener “Brighter Shade.” Guitar melodies interlock with Ashley Mae’s fiddle line,
providing plenty of room for a staggering mandolin part and shuffling drums. “Each day I love
you more,” Tod croons, singing to his wife. “I could leave but some part of me would stay,” he
adds, before concluding, “And only I can love you like I do, and you dare to trade it all for a
brighter shade of blue.”
Though there was heartbreak at the prospect of the project coming to an end, its resurrection
has meant all the more in this new context. “I definitely felt a good amount of grief and sadness
that it was going to come to a close. I resisted, but then I accepted that it was going to come to
a close,” explains Ashley Mae. “Seeing it reinvigorated in a completely different spirit and light is
very exciting.”
That new direction began in the recording process, when Tod decided to swap out their
traditional recording style of overdubbing parts in favor of recording everything live. It was an
experience he was introduced to during his solo album, and found the process so successful
that it, in part, led to his decision to revive Lost Dog. “We were able to finish the entire album in
five days, and it has a remarkable energy to it,” Tod explains. Take the title track, which closes
the album. Mournful fiddle and strummed mandolin chords provide an idyllic backdrop for Tod,
who sings with an unbridled passion. “Lord, I have survived,” he reflects.
“Benjamin and I, both individually and together, have been through some professionally grinding
and demoralizing personal times over the past five years,” Ashley Mae explains. “To take a step
back from that over the past year and realize, ‘Wow, we held it down and withstood that, and we
survived that,’ was a really good, bright, shining moment. It was the high point during a
demoralizing time.” As such, Survived is a saving grace, a phoenix rising from the ashes. “This
record means everything,” adds Tod. “It just feels like salvation.”

Resonant Rogues

On their fourth album, Western North Carolina-based outfit The Resonant Rogues have finally decided to self-title a project. It’s a bold move — rather like staking a claim on a sound that is both new for them and distinctly their own. From the opening notes of lead track “Sun in Winter,” the eponymous record finesses the line between country and soul. The keening of the fiddle and the sway of the pedal steel are classic sounds; the vocals — sung by Sparrow who fronts the band with her partner Keith Josiah Smith — are poetic and wistful, yet unfussy. “I miss you like the sun in winter / laying in the yard / in the snow / trying to catch that glow / before it goes,” she sings. It’s a moment encapsulated; something as lovely as it is fleeting.

Sparrow and Keith share a passion for movement and sound. Both traveled extensively throughout the U.S. — Keith by hopping freight trains, Sparrow with a circus troupe. When the two met by chance in Asheville 10 years ago, they combined their talents and The Resonant Rogues were born. While the band has explored musical styles from across genres and around the globe, current influences for Resonant Rogues, and especially this album, are classic country, Appalachian old-time, and vintage soul.

For all the far-flung touchstones and travels shared by The Resonant Rogues, their namesake album speaks to laying down roots. “Finding peace in a small town / is like watching a doe at sundown,” Keith sings on “Slow Burn.” The song nods to country poets like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. This is a personal musing, its cozy folk flickering with Sparrow’s jaunty accordion. It’s worth noting that Keith and Sparrow recently settled on a piece of land in the Western North Carolina mountains — acreage Sparrow says she hopes never to leave.

"With its sweeping strings and weeping accordion, this is country music as classic as it comes." ~ Holler Country

"A tasteful interpretation of a classic feel... it blends traditional and Appalachian music with modern flair in a simply delightful way." ~ Glide Magazine