Benjamin Tod’s Lost Dog Street Band was born out of freedom: the idea that an artist with a guitar can go anywhere, at anytime, and earn a living singing their songs. When the Tennessee songwriter was just 13, Tod began playing music for tips on the sidewalks of Nashville. It was an education in resourcefulness, hard knocks, and staking one’s claim.
“We woke up under a bridge and crawled out, set up on a street corner all day long and held down the spot. If one person needed to pee, someone had to wait there,” Tod says.
But today’s busking community is being squeezed. While Tod and Ashley Mae, his wife and creative partner in Lost Dog Street Band, eventually went from holding court on Nashville’s Lower Broadway to headlining venues like the city’s Cannery Ballroom, their busking peers are finding few places to open their cases and play.
“Going around the country…
