Montana folk duo Buffalo Traffic Jam have dropped “Barely Holding On”, a song about losing the spark for something you once loved, as their sold-out 2027 Pictures of You Tour heads to the UK in April.
Some bands spend years chasing a breakout moment. Montana duo Buffalo Traffic Jam, Frankie Cassidy and Nathan Ross, seem to be stacking them up. Their new song, “Barely Holding On”, is out now, and it lands in the middle of a very good run: the 2027 “Pictures of You Tour” sold out in just two hours after tickets went on sale.
The story behind “Barely Holding On”
Cassidy says 2026 has been “a crazy busy and hectic year”, with little time at home with friends and family. At the end of summer she finally got back to Montana and started playing piano more. She wrote a verse she had no idea what to do with, until she showed it to Ross, who added a banjo melody she was “obsessed with”. They finished the song with long-time collaborator Joe Becker.
The result is a song about losing the drive and passion for something you once loved. As Cassidy puts it: “No matter how put together something may seem, at the end of the day, I think we’re all ‘Barely Holding On.'”
A sold-out run, including the UK
Buffalo Traffic Jam have now sold out every headline show they’ve played, plus all dates announced through the spring. The 2027 run includes their headline debut at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium (4 and 5 March), plus stops at Minneapolis’ First Avenue, Grand Rapids’ GLC Live at 20 Monroe and Philadelphia’s The Fillmore.
The UK and Ireland dates are all sold out:
8 April: Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
10 and 11 April: London, O2 Forum Kentish Town
13 and 14 April: Glasgow, Barrowland Ballroom
16 and 17 April: Dublin, National Stadium
Before that, European dates take in Stockholm’s Fållan on 29 March, then Oslo, Hamburg, Köln, Amsterdam and Paris. The run wraps at Stagecoach 2027 in Indio, California on 23 April.
The album behind it all
The tour follows debut album Pictures of You, released in late July via Arista Records. It’s a 14-song collection about growing older, sitting in the space between nostalgia and hope. It was produced by Sam Westhoff, Carrie K, Ryan Hadlock, Joe Becker and Brian Elmquist. It includes “Fool’s Gold“, which reached number one on the U.S. Alternative Radio chart, went RIAA Gold and has passed 150 million streams.
The critics have been kind. People called it “a cathartic debut release”, while Billboard said it evokes “Montana’s rugged terrains, lofty mountain peaks and wide valleys”. Rolling Stone described the pair as one of country music’s most striking examples of streaming and social media creating a career.
Cassidy and Ross met as students at Montana State University in Bozeman. After a self-titled EP in 2024, they played last year’s Under The Big Sky and RedWest Festival and toured with Dylan Gossett. They then took Billboard’s March 2026 Chartbreaker title, passed 4.4 million monthly Spotify listeners and made their national TV debut on CBS’s Saturday Sessions.
Want to catch up? You can stream or buy Pictures of You here. For news on any future dates, head to the band’s official website.
