Benjamin Tod covers 12 classic country songs on Country Is Dead, a digital-only album releasing September 4 via Thirty Tigers, with the lead single "Waiting For A Train" (originally by Jimmie Rodgers) arriving now. The Lost Dog Street Band frontman reimagines tracks by Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Bob Dylan and others as personal retellings shaped by decades of street performing and train travel.
“I’ve been playing this song since I was 14 years old when it was just a vision into what I wanted to experience in life,” says Benjamin Tod of Jimmie Rodgers’ classic, “Waiting For A Train.” “It turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy shortly after when I spent a decade riding trains coast to coast.” The Lost Dog Street Band frontman is revisiting this adolescent inspiration of his for an all-new covers album, Country Is Dead - releasing digitally only on September 4th via Thirty Tigers. “I wanted to give a representation of what country songs had impacted me the most in life,” Tod says of the project. For the album’s first single to be a timeless number from the father of country music shows not only how deep in the catalog Tod is reaching, but the respect he has for those who came before him; down to some of the very first to do it.
With a pedal steel train whistle imitation and a slinky swagger, Tod and his band kick into “Waiting For A Train” with a lived-in abandon. “I have now lived this song a thousand times over, and its position as one of the foundational songs in country music makes that experience all the more special to me to put on a record,” Tod says. It’s easy to imagine the Singing Brakeman himself getting a kick out of the way this modern version ticks all of the original boxes while adding little tastes of each generation of country music since. Produced by Andrija Tokic at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, fiddle and steel flank a phase-shifted Telecaster and a steadfast rhythm section throughout, nailing Tod’s trademark, raw delivery. “I loved reinventing this song in a more ‘outlaw’ style, and I believe it fits the spirit of this Jimmie Rodgers tune.”
The spirit of re-imagining is at the heart of Country Is Dead. “My general take on covers is they either need to be done differently, or done better,” says Tod. “There’s a few that are impossible to do either with, but I think we hit that mark on most of this record. I wanted to take on the challenge of making new arrangements, and in some cases, reinventing old standards in completely different ways.” The twelve songs of this new collection mesh so well together not just because of the sonic revamp each received, but also because they’re at the foundation of what makes Tod tick. “Some of these songs I started playing on the streets of Nashville when I was a teenager, and shaped who I am as a writer and a musician,” Tod says of Country Is Dead’s tracklist. “This was a full-circle kind of moment, and really a means of insight into who I am.”
Fans can stream/purchase “Waiting For A Train” and pre-save/pre-order Country Is Dead ahead of its September 4th release right here.
Country Is Dead Tracklist (with the original recording artist):
Waiting For A Train (Jimmie Rodgers)
Hickory Wind (The Byrds)
Natural Thing To Do (Larry Sparks)
Highway 40 Blues (Ricky Skaggs)
Nashville Women (Hank Locklin)
You Take Me For Granted (Merle Haggard)
Some Broken Hearts Never Mend (Don Williams)
Alone And Forsaken (Hank Williams)
Color Of The Blues (George Jones)
Only A Hobo (Bob Dylan)
Ragged Old Truck (Billy Joe Shaver)
Turn This Thing Around (Keith Whitley)
About Benjamin Tod: Benjamin Tod is the lead singer-songwriter and guitarist for the acclaimed Lost Dog Street Band. His latest full-length release, Vengeance and Grace, is a dual-sided LP that represents the full range of Tod’s capabilities: restraint on one side, force on the other. Tod’s writing on Vengeance and Grace speaks to mind, body, and soul, shaped by faith, discipline, a hard-earned understanding of consequence, and the life he’s built around it, all rooted in traditional country and folk music. Released on Thirty Tigers in April of 2026, the album received praise from People, No Depression, Holler, Whiskey Riff, and American Songwriter. And Tod isn’t done yet… Out September 4, 2026, Country Is Dead marks Tod’s second full-length release this year. Available digitally only, the record includes 12 covers of classic country songs, uniquely arranged and sung from Tod’s perspective–from Jimmie Rodgers to Hank Williams. Throughout 2026, Tod is touring the albums across the United States with Lost Dog Street Band.
