Australian Country Artist Duncan Toombs Comes Home With New Single
- Stevie Connor
- 2 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Stevie Connor | The Sound Cafe Journal
After A Lifetime On The Road, The Golden Guitar Winner Finds The One Thing Success Can Never Replace
There is something about the word home that means different things to different people.
For some, it is a place. For others, it is a person, a collection of memories, or simply that feeling of knowing you are where you are supposed to be. And sometimes, it takes travelling a long way from home to understand just how important it really is.
For Australian country artist Duncan Toombs, that feeling has become the inspiration behind his new single, ‘I Go Home’, released September 4th as the first taste of his highly anticipated second solo album.
After spending much of his life travelling the world, playing guitar, working alongside some of the biggest names in Australian country music and building a career that has taken him well beyond Australia, Toombs has experienced much of what a life in music can offer.
There have been awards, chart success, television audiences and international touring.
But there is still something about coming home.
And that is where I Go Home begins.
It is an upbeat, feel-good country song built around a strong melody and an instantly memorable guitar hook, with the kind of chorus that feels made for singing along. There is an easy familiarity to the track, the sort of song that can sit comfortably on country radio, find its way into a live set and still sound just as natural being played in a crowded pub at the end of a long night.
But beneath that accessible country sound is something considerably more personal.
Born and raised in Toowoomba, Queensland, and now living on the Central Coast of New South Wales with his family, Toombs has always understood the importance of home. That understanding took on an even greater meaning after spending four months touring Canada alongside award-winning Canadian country artist Gord Bamford.
There is a particular perspective that comes from being thousands of kilometres away from the people and places you know best.
You meet new people. You experience different cultures. You stand on stages in unfamiliar towns and cities. You discover that the world is much bigger than the place where you started.
And eventually, you find yourself wanting to go home.
“I've spent a lot of time travelling this world. I've met a lot of beautiful and warm-hearted people. But there's something about the kind of unconditional love and acceptance you get from your own tribe,” Toombs says.
It is a simple thought, but one that carries considerable weight.
Because underneath the touring, the awards, the success and all the opportunities that come with a career in music, there is still the person underneath it all. And for Toombs, I Go Home is ultimately about the people who remain important when everything else is stripped away.
He is also quick to acknowledge that home is not a positive experience for everyone.
“I'm certainly not blind to the fact that home doesn't hold this love for a lot of people out there. In some cases it's the complete opposite and my heart goes out to you.”
That honesty gives the song something more than the feel-good qualities of a country anthem. It becomes a song about belonging, and about something that most of us spend our lives looking for in one form or another.
“I do think it's something we're all chasing down here on earth. Love and acceptance.”
Perhaps that is why songs about home have endured for so long. They may begin with one person's experience, but the emotion belongs to all of us.
We have all, at some point, known what it feels like to leave somewhere, to miss someone, or to discover that the place we thought we had outgrown still has a piece of us.
Toombs has certainly earned his place in Australian country music.
Long before stepping into the spotlight as a solo artist, he established himself as one of Australia's most in-demand country guitarists, spending more than three decades performing alongside some of the country's biggest names.
His creative career also extended into filmmaking, where he established an extraordinary record of his own, winning seven consecutive Golden Guitar Awards for Music Video Director of the Year between 2010 and 2016.
But eventually, the guitar player stepped out from behind the scenes.
His debut solo album, Steel on Steel, released in January 2023, debuted at number one on the ARIA Australian Country Charts and marked the beginning of a new chapter.
The recognition followed quickly.
In 2024, Toombs won Golden Guitars for Heritage Song of the Year for ‘1861’ and Music Video of the Year for ‘Steel on Steel’, while also taking home the People's Choice Album of the Year.
Then came The Voice.
His performance of the original song ‘Steel on Steel’ reached almost three million viewers, while the performance spread across TikTok and Instagram, introducing his music to a much wider audience and helping create an international following.
But the television appearance was only another chapter in a career that had already been built over many years. The real test, as it is for any performer, comes when the cameras are gone and the artist is standing in front of an audience night after night.
That is where the Canadian tour mattered.
Toombs spent four months on the road across Canada with Gord Bamford earlier this year, performing for audiences far from his Australian home.
Perhaps spending so much time on the other side of the world made the message of I Go Home even clearer.
“No money or success can fill that part of our hearts. If you're looking to fill it, I just don't think there's anything better than having family and friends that truly care for us.”
Music careers are often measured in numbers, chart positions, streams, awards, ticket sales and audience figures.
But none of those numbers mean very much when the lights go down and the road eventually leads somewhere that feels like home.
“I got it, and I thank God every day for being one of the lucky ones.”
That may be the real story behind I Go Home.
Not simply that Duncan Toombs has returned to Australia after another journey, but that the journey itself has changed the way he sees what was waiting for him when he got there.
The road has taken him from Toowoomba to stages across Australia and around the world. It has brought him awards, chart success, television exposure and an international audience.
It has also brought him back to something much simpler: the people who know him, care about him and give meaning to the place he calls home.
And maybe that is what makes I Go Home work.
It isn't trying to convince us that success doesn't matter. It is reminding us that success isn't everything.
Because eventually, regardless of how far the road takes us, most of us are still looking for the same thing, somewhere, and someone, to come home to.
For Duncan Toombs, that search has become a song.
And perhaps after spending so much of his life travelling, he understands its meaning better than most.
The Sound Cafe Journal
Where the story behind the music matters.
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