Today, breakout Montana folk duo Buffalo Traffic Jam return with their darkly moving new tune “Fool’s Gold,” out now on Arista Records. The sonically rich single arrives alongside a lyric video and will land on the just-announced Take Me Home EP, due out October 24. The boys are currently on tour with country riser Dylan Gossett—see the itinerary below.
Listen to “Fool’s Gold” HERE.
Watch the “Fool’s Gold” lyric video [HERE].
Pre-order/save the Take Me Home EP [HERE].
Purchase tickets to see Buffalo Traffic Jam [HERE].
Produced by Ryan Hadlock (The Lumineers, Brandi Carlile, Vance Joy) and written by Buffalo Traffic Jam bandmates Frankie Cassidy and Nathan Ross, “Fool’s Gold” takes listeners on a journey. Opening on gentle picking and pretty atmosphere, the song feels full of promise at first as Frankie issues a rallying cry, “Whaddaya say we leave tonight, we could leave it all behind.” But as the rhythm picks up and cello enters, looming like an ominous cloud, we realize the narrator is in a bad place — lost and desperate: “Lovers talk late at night, doin’ drugs ease my mind / I’m not alright / You were there, now you’re gone, never thought you were wrong / We don’t have much time.” He’s still searching when the song comes to a dramatic close.
Frankie spoke on the single’s theme:
“Sometimes what you want is not actually what you need. A lot of times all we can think about is things in life that we think we can’t live without. The mind likes to play tricks on us and put false hopes in our heart. ‘Fool’s Gold’ explores these ideas and tells the story of someone who thinks they know exactly what they need, when all they really needed was some time to themselves.”
He also elaborated on the song’s creation:
“I was home alone in Bozeman for about a week and a half and it was weird being in this empty house with no one there for so long. I began to get rather lonely and became obsessed with this idea and wrote and produced a demo of it in one night. I brought it to Nathan and he added some awesome mandolin lines to it. We then took it to Ryan in Washington State and he really helped bring the song to life by bringing in session players on cello, drums, and bass.”
“Fool’s Gold” is the second single to come from the forthcoming Take Me Home. Last month, Buffalo Traffic Jam made their Arista Records debut with the gorgeous and deeply cathartic “Comfort in Misery,” a song about the ruts we fall into when we’re in need of some healing. The track landed on Spotify’s hotly tipped Fresh Folk playlist and picked up praise from Melodic Mag, who hailed it as “A compelling combination of heartfelt lyrics and emotive folk.”
Before that came a pair of moving 2025 cuts — the expansive “Milestone” and the propulsive “Strangers Now” — and Buffalo Traffic Jam’s November breakthrough, “Forgot Your Roots,” a heart-wrenching mix of emotional rawness and cinematic grandeur. Following their 2024 self-titled debut EP, that song felt like a culmination of something that had been brewing since they came together as Montana State University students united by a love for storytelling, the beauty of acoustic sound, and the natural wonder surrounding them in Big Sky Country.
Of late, Buffalo Traffic Jam have been bringing their homespun music to wider audiences, making their first festival appearance at Under the Big Sky in Whitefish, MT, and supporting a generation-hopping array of talent including the legendary Steve Earle, Alabama outlaw country artist Jamey Johnson, and Texas red dirt purveyors Shane Smith & The Saints. Their current run with Gossett wraps up November 16 in Phoenix, AZ. In between, they’ll support Allen Stone and Bayker Blankenship, plus play Salt Lake City’s Red West Festival on October 12. Catch the fellas on the road and stay tuned — the Buffalo Traffic Jam story has just begun.
Buffalo Traffic Jam – Take Me Home
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Take Me Home
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Black Eyed Susie
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Fool’s Gold
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Broken Love
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Can’t Let Go
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Comfort in Misery
Buffalo Traffic Jam Tour Dates
9/26 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway *
9/27 - Philadelphia, PA - The Fillmore *
10/2 - Billings, MT - The Pub Station +
10/5 - Great Falls, MT - The Newberry +
10/7 - Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom &
10/8 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox &
10/9 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory &
10/12 - Salt Lake City, UT - Red West Festival ^
10/16 - Indianapolis, IN - Egyptian Room at Old National Centre *
10/17 - Columbus, OH - KEMBA Live! *
10/18 - Richmond, VA - Brown’s Island (PGA) *
10/21 - Cleveland, OH - The Agora *
10/23 - Detroit, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre *
10/24 - Toronto, ON - History *
10/25 - Toronto, ON - History *
10/27 - Grand Rapids, MI - GLC Live at 20 Monroe *
10/29 - Madison, WI - The Sylvee *
10/30 - St. Paul, MN - Palace Theatre *
11/1 - Chesterfield, MO - The Factory *
11/2 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater *
11/9 - Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom *
11/11 - Salt Lake City, UT - Rockwell @ The Complex *
11/13 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern *
11/14 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater *
11/16 - Phoenix, AZ - The Van Buren *
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with Dylan Gossett
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with Allen Stone
& with Bayker Blankenship
^ festival appearance
