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Benjamin Tod, “Beautiful Curse,” // GemsOnVHS™

GemsOnVHS | March 14, 2026



Ben came down to Old Hickory, Tennessee to play a new tune for us, just before the pandemic swept the nation. In some sort of premonition of events to come, we talked a little bit about how it is the duty of an artist to go into the darkness and come out with something people can use. That’s why songwriting is important; it pieces together all our desires, fears, ambitions, hopes, dreams, failures and victories into a little package we can appreciate, and grow from. Fitting for a moment like now, when the songs are helping us all get through isolation, quarantine and financial woe.

Indeed, as I stare at an empty calendar running into the summer, I owe a lot to the artists who spend their whole life writing these feelings I can’t adequately deal with on my own. Teaching me, letting me lean on their sweet melodies and stories. So thanks to them, cheers. Buy your favorite songwriter a drink next you see them, and for now buy their music online so they can survive long enough to share the tunes they’re writing even today, cooped up at home. Drop in on a livestream. Together we’ll make it to the finish line.

This is filmed in a rather historic place, at our friend Katie Belle’s house (formerly her father, Townes Van Zandt’s house), the same kitchen where Townes self titled album cover was shot, the same place Ben and Matt Heckler played together in that video all that time ago. It was also the house in the Heartworn Highways documentary, the scene with Guy Clark and everyone singing around the table. Maybe we will have to do something big here one day. Stay tuned.

Make sure you check these links for all things Lost Dog;
http://www.lostdogstreetband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/lostdogstreetband
https://www.instagram.com/lostdogstreetband/

Thanks to our Patrons like VJ Arizpe, Richard Harmon, Derek Brown and Joshua Priest for making this possible. Consider becoming a Patreon contributor to help sustain this project. For the price of a cup of coffee every month, you let us continue finding and filming amazing artists.
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GemsOnVHS is a long running series of intimate, off-stage performances by songwriters we love.
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Written by GemsOnVHS

Comments

This post currently has 48 comments.

  2. @ryanramsey7017

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Some artists entertain.
    Others walk with you through the fire and don’t rush you out.
    Benjamin Todd is the latter
    The bounty of his worth is more than
    streams, more than stages, more than whatever number they try to pin to his name, Thank you Ben and Ashley Your work carries more weight than numbers or noise.
    It carries people.

  11. @shinobi-Wan

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Life's a trip man, I don't understand how it can feel so real and dream like at the same time and how other people I saw were wrong could be right and wrong, just like me. But I do know the music has a mysterious power in that it has the power to really get to someone's inner core and change their mind. It might be the only thing that can actually do that. That's probably why they sing so much at church, but maybe they're singing the wrong songs. It's not for me to say. I only say that because they say I need to save my soul but I don't believe in their answer. It doesn't seem to be available to everyone when it should. I think it's important that the answer is universal, simple and easy to achieve and that no person can get in the way of you receiving that answer because it's personal. That's why the lyrics and timing of the song coming into my life again is having such a profound impact on me that I don't know what to do with other than write a long comment on YouTube so that maybe someone can relate cuz I think that's how you save someones soul being able to relate to someone and understand where they're coming from and feel their pain because you felt it cuz it gives them peace of mind. I think that's the message to have peace of mind and the understanding that there's hope no matter what. It's a message that anyone on the planet can receive on their own and no one can give it to you and no one can take it away. There's no official. Can't buy it. Can't get a degree in it and that's the problem. If it's not measured, it doesn't matter until it does. This song is helping me keep my peace of mind which I appreciate greatly because it's helping me save my soul and the people I love because they will have peace of mind as well. I hope if you're reading this that you don't lose hope no matter what you go through in life and you always keep your peace of mind and that you don't compromise too much of yourself that you lose it and if you did that you can still find a way to get it back at the end. Thank you for sharing the message of salvation. Even though you might have not known it cuz I know it's saving people who need it.🌹🙏🏼🌹✌🏿🌹

  13. @tmdawdy

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    You speak beautiful sadness and truth through your lyrics…I'm obsessed since day one. Thank you for sharing your heart/love/soul/honesty…..I love every inch of the vulnerability

  16. @paintandpixel

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    How have I never heard of you before two days ago? My love for Americana and country music and the algorithm never introduced us? Happy to have found your music here and now. Artists going into darkness statement hit me hard. Keep it up.

  23. @chelsiebeesley2125

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Soneone had the nerve to catfish me as ben…i knew it wasnt right butbi wss so goddamn pissed…not for me but for you…someone id literally acting like you to scam money out of people…o i was livid

  25. @kristinabenet

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    I saw Barefoot Surrender 10+ years ago in southern Oregon. That cd I got at the show was played so many times driving crazy through the forest… I think Barefoot Surrender imprinted on my then-teenage son. All these years later, through my son, I am reconnected to his music. These songs are like an exorcism to the painful parts of my life I try not to remember, but can't forget.

  27. @toddmcmahon3854

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Ain’t no one even come close in history I’m my opinion that even comes close to touching what this man has inside of me..war inside of me is another one..I just discovered this man…and he continues to repeatedly BLOW MY FUCKING MIND!! Not easily achieved I might add

  28. @ClareBAMENT

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    ❤😂😢😂😢❤❤❤ love you 4ever. Ur always in my heart ❤️ you got me threw it once… Now ur helping me again since losing my daughter. Thank u Ben…❤😂❤😂❤

  32. @labiosdemel2322

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    lyrics:

    Things I try to lock inside too ugly to bare

    Find a seam inside my dream and begin to tear

    Through my eyes they come alive and beckon for a stare

    In your throat I hit a note for Beelzebub to hear

    And the silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse oh what a beautiful curse

    Take me out and put me down I'm dying for a cure

    In this room a tortured few feast upon a spur

    No one sees the artist weep the bounty of his worth

    And desperately try to breathe and dig until it hurts

    And the silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse oh what a beautiful curse

    Brother can you shape these hands and teach em how to feel Something more than how to scorn or burn you in a deal

    Who needs games or tempting fate when you know how to steal I see in you the same old fool I was when things were real

    And the silence weeps for which of us will leave with something worse oh what a beautiful curse

  34. @MarlinForbes

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Beautiful piece!

    But fate is bullshit. Everyone has a choice. Sure, you're gonna say the choice is fate too. But believing that means you have no choice, everything is predetermined. I'd rather not believe that.

  36. @bikeswithb8829

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Anyone else's life saved by the shared pain through this man's songs? I don't know you Ben, but thank you much for going into the dark to help us crawl back into the light my friend. I tip my hat forever to you

  39. @notryan2496

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Been here through getting clean, now I'm here because my father's funeral is tomorrow, he fell off a ladder painting, 65 years young, painting contractor since he was like 15. This music is so healing ❤️

  40. @daemonrowanchilde7221

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    I lost my wife and soulmate to cancer last August. 38 yrs gone in a flash. One gift was that I cannot listen to anything less real than Benjamin Tod. I am healing through artists like Benjamin Tod. Thank you Benjamin❤️🙏

  44. @danielmccallister1713

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    Big fan here ben….didn't know about ur music until 2018 but damn…those 4 years have been nothing but healing for me thanks to your music, something about wanting to hurt more when you're hurting….most people's lyrics are all "f the government, get high till I die, ect" your music is moving in a way that only someone who wants to better themselves can truly be inspired by the lyrics….

  48. @allylewis4345

    March 14, 2026 at 7:23 pm

    And yet again he smashes this song out like butter , his Voice swings on every note, every beat an up tune but the lyrics literally grab your soul! I love all your a capella acoustic songs and extremely well written articulate lyrics!

Comments are closed.

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