Dear Tommie returns with new single 'Buffalo'

Australian country artist Dear Tommie is stepping into a darker, more introspective chapter with new single ‘Buffalo’, a love letter to home, freedom and the land, and the first taste of her forthcoming second EP, Ballerina.

Dear Tommie chases freedom and wide-open horizons on ‘Buffalo’

Sometimes you need to leave home to understand just how deeply it has shaped you.

For Dear Tommie, a few years of city life were enough to stir up a longing for something simpler — open country, an uninterrupted horizon and the particular sense of freedom that comes from having enough space around you to simply disappear for a while.

Those feelings sit at the heart of ‘Buffalo’, the latest single from the emerging Australian artist and the beginning of a new chapter that promises to explore a moodier side of the cinematic country world she has been steadily creating.

The idea arrived in suitably cinematic fashion.

‘This idea came to me when I was sick in bed after watching Western films,’ Dear Tommie explains.

‘They reminded me of home and what it was like living in a remote area. After being in the city for a few years, I yearned for simplicity, seeing nothing but the horizon in front of me. I felt the need to run away without restraint... pure freedom.’

But ‘Buffalo’ isn't simply about escaping.

There’s love tangled through that longing too — the understanding that even the most beautiful wide-open landscape can feel a little empty if there’s nobody beside you to share it.

‘But that kind of life isn't meant to be lived alone,’ she says. ‘Buffalo is a love letter to the land, my love and my heritage.’

That combination of landscape, romance and nostalgia feels particularly at home in Dear Tommie’s world.

‘Cinematic country’ is a phrase that has increasingly followed the young artist, and ‘Buffalo’ perhaps makes the reason clearer than ever. Sweeping imagery and immersive production meet storytelling that feels deeply personal, with the song reaching back towards home while simultaneously pushing her music into new territory.

It also marks the first glimpse of Ballerina, Dear Tommie’s second EP, arriving 20 November.

Where debut EP Gasolina introduced listeners to her distinctive aesthetic and sound, Ballerina looks set to explore its darker counterpart, leaning further into introspection without losing the strong sense of place and identity that has become part of her songwriting.

It arrives at a time when Dear Tommie’s introduction to the Australian country scene is gathering momentum.

Since launching the project earlier this year, each of her singles has landed on Spotify’s Fresh Finds Country, a run that also led to her selection for Spotify’s inaugural Global Fresh Finds Forward program.

Away from streaming, that momentum has continued.

Multiple singles have debuted inside the Top 20 of the Australian Country Airplay chart, while festival bookings including Strummingbird, Groundwater and CMC Rocks are putting Dear Tommie in front of growing audiences. She has also secured support slots alongside rising US artist Stella Lefty, while both Lefty and Shaboozey have publicly shown their support for her music.

It’s been a lot of movement in a relatively short space of time, but ‘Buffalo’ feels less concerned with where Dear Tommie is heading than with the place she came from.

There’s something fittingly country about that contradiction.

The bigger life becomes, the stronger the pull towards open land and simple things can feel. Sometimes freedom looks less like running towards somewhere new and more like finding your way back to the parts of yourself you left behind.

With ‘Buffalo’, Dear Tommie seems to be doing a little of both.

And with Ballerina on the horizon, it feels like there’s plenty more of her story still to unfold.

‘Buffalo’ is out now. Ballerina arrives 20 November.