Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo (Joel Hoffman & Elana Stone) play Franks Wild Years with support from Tom Woodward.
Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo (or Buffalo 8 for short) is a heartfelt, harmony-rich show featuring Illawarra-based musicians Elana Stone and Joel Hoffman. Armed with guitar, mandolin, and a deep love for modern Americana, the pair play their own original music and also breathe new life into songs by their favourite artists — including Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Big Thief, Josh Ritter and The Band.
Elana Stone is a songwriter and recording artist with two ARIA awards under her belt. Performing under her own name as well as being a co-founder of femme folk band All Our Exes Live in Texas, she works with lots of great musicians, including Missy Higgins and Josh Pyke.
Joel Hoffman has been hanging around the Australian folk festival circuit for the past twenty years since moving to Australia from Oregon, his home state in the US. As a teenager he was turbo charging his high school car with high end tweeters when everyone else was adding more bass. His more recent years have been focused on perfecting the mandolin, joining local trad sessions and for many years running one of the most successful underground music venues in Sydney - Hibernian House.
Elana and Joel first started performing online during the COVID lockdown — stranded at Elana’s sister’s house and armed with a phone and some time to kill. Since then, they’ve welcomed two adorable (and very time-consuming) kids into their lives.
Now, they’re back — older, more sleep-deprived, and ready to harmonise again. Also known as Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo (or Buffalo 8 for short),which is apparently a grammatically correct sentence. They’ll be gracing the Franks stage on Sunday 2 August with support from Tom Woodward.
Tom Woodward is a masterful fingerpicking guitarist who weaves stories through song with a modern folk aesthetic.
His mid-2010s album Beautiful Shadows received critical acclaim in publications such as For Folk’s Sake and the Huffington Post and earned him a Canberra Critics Circle award. He has performed at the National Folk Festival, The Multicultural Fringe Festival, KVFF, and racked up supports for such luminaries as Steve Poltz, Tim Rogers, Svavar Knutur, The Drones, and Abbe May, amongst many others. His more recent albums have received widespread support from community and college radio, and have been supported by three years of his touring the eastern seaboard of Australia, culminating in a successful Sunday afternoon residency at Smiths Alternative in Canberra.
His extensive discography contains a unique blend of baroque folk-rock, cosmic country psychedelia and fuzzed out lo-fi gems. “Wastrels”, his upcoming album due July 2026, contains stripped back acoustic folk ballads showcasing his uniquely lyrical fingerpicking and storytelling. The first single, “Sitting On A Railing” was premiered on Stuart Coupe’s Dirt Music radio show on 2Ser, and was featured as Track Of The Week on Canberra’s 2xxFM. Tom’s eclectic musicality and creative work ethic are proof he’s in it for the long haul. Having been sentence to a wandering life by a sardonic and hilarious God, Tom’s been laughing, crying and singing about it ever since.