If you want to understand what real Australian country music sounds like, you start with Sara Storer. I’ve spent years coming back to her catalog, and every single time, something new cracks me open — a lyric about drought, a harmony with her brother, a duet with her niece. This is my rundown of the best Sara Storer songs, the ones that built her legacy as one of Australia’s most authentic singer-songwriters.
Storer isn’t chasing trends. She grew up on a wheat farm in Wemen, Victoria, taught school in Katherine in the Northern Territory, and writes from that exact life — the tin roofs, the dry paddocks, the family gatherings. That honesty is why she’s collected more than twenty Golden Guitar Awards, a record for an Australian female country artist, and why her songs still land the same gut-punch decades later. Pull these up in our full songs archive if you want more deep dives like this one, and let’s get into it.
Raining on the Plains (feat. John Williamson)
This one still gives me chills. “Raining on the Plains” was written by Storer’s brother Doug, who lives on a property near Gulargambone facing the Warrumbungles, and the song became the lead single from her 2002 album Beautiful Circle. Producer Garth Porter built the arrangement around a slow-burning, storm-building dynamic, and pairing Storer with John Williamson turned it into a genuine vocal event rather than just another duet. It swept the 2004 Golden Guitar Awards, taking out Vocal Collaboration of the Year, Single of the Year, and Song of the Year, and honestly, hearing those two voices trade lines about waiting on drought-breaking rain still feels like the emotional peak of her early catalog.
Buffalo Bill
Every great career needs an origin story, and this is Storer’s. “Buffalo Bill” was her debut single off Chasing Buffalo in 2000, produced by Garth Porter, and it earned her the Best New Talent award at the Country Music Awards of Australia in 2001. The production is sparse compared to her later work, all acoustic guitar and pedal steel, but that rawness is the point — you can hear an artist figuring out exactly who she is in real time. Listen to it back to back with anything off Worth Your Love and the growth in her vocal control is staggering.
Come on Rain
Storer has built almost a sub-genre around drought and rain as recurring characters in her songwriting, and “Come on Rain” is one of the earliest, most direct entries in that conversation. It carries the plain-spoken, first-person perspective of a farmer staring at a cloudless sky, which is exactly the authenticity that separates her from more polished, radio-chasing country acts. On a good pair of headphones the acoustic guitar work sits right up front, and that intimacy is what makes the song feel less like a performance and more like an overheard prayer.
Dandelions
Pulled from 2016’s Silos, “Dandelions” is one of her more delicately arranged tracks, leaning on gentler dynamics than the drought anthems she’s known for. Silos won the ARIA Award for Best Country Album that year, and this song is a big part of why — it shows Storer softening her storytelling into something more reflective without losing her signature plainspoken lyricism. If you’re a headphone listener who chases detail in the mix, check our headphones comparison before you sit down with this one, because the acoustic layering rewards close attention.
Raindance
The title track of her seventh studio album, released as the lead single in January 2019, “Raindance” was written explicitly as an antidote to the heaviness of drought coverage in the media. Storer has said she wanted a song that offered hope instead of sorrow, something communities could dance and sing to while waiting for the rain to break. Musically, it’s got more rhythmic drive than a lot of her catalog — there’s a percussive urgency here that makes it work live just as well as it works through your car speakers on a long outback drive.
Back out Back
A deep-cut favorite from her earliest era, “Back out Back” later found a home on the Calling Me Home compilation, which speaks to how well the song has aged within her live setlists. It’s got that unmistakable early-2000s Storer sound: unfussy production, close-mic’d vocals, and lyrics rooted in the physical geography of rural property life. Meanwhile, tracks like this are the reason longtime fans still call her the most geographically specific songwriter in Australian country music — you can practically map the paddock she’s singing about.
Children of the Gurindji (feat. Kev Carmody)
This is the most quietly powerful song on this list. “Children of the Gurindji” pairs Storer with Aboriginal singer-songwriter Kev Carmody, best known for co-writing the landmark protest anthem about the Wave Hill walk-off, and the collaboration first appeared on 2010’s Calling Me Home. Carmody’s weathered, weary vocal tone against Storer’s clearer register creates a genuinely moving contrast, and the song stands as one of the more overtly political statements in her otherwise personal, pastoral catalog. In contrast to the drought ballads, this one is about land, history, and reconciliation, and it deserves way more attention than it typically gets.
Tell These Hands
Tucked into 2002’s Beautiful Circle, “Tell These Hands” is one of the album’s more physically grounded tracks, built around imagery of labor and hands-on rural work. Producer Garth Porter keeps the arrangement close to the ground here, letting the storytelling do the heavy lifting rather than layering on studio polish. It’s a great example of why Beautiful Circle swept seven Golden Guitar Awards in 2004, including Album of the Year — nearly every track holds up as a standalone statement.
Beautiful Circle
The title track of her second studio album deserves its own spotlight. Released in November 2002 and produced by Garth Porter, “Beautiful Circle” helped anchor an album that won Storer the Female Vocalist of the Year and Album of the Year Golden Guitars in 2004, a then-record haul of seven trophies in a single ceremony. The song’s central metaphor — life and land moving in cycles, loss folding back into renewal — became something of a thesis statement for her songwriting going forward. It’s poetic without being precious, and that balance is exactly her signature.
Calling Me Home
Written as the new centerpiece for her 2010 compilation Calling Me Home – The Best of Sara Storer, this title track peaked inside the ARIA Albums Chart top 30 and gave longtime listeners a fresh reason to revisit her catalog. Critic Susan Jarvis singled it out at the time as one of the standout new songs on a project otherwise built from career highlights. It works as a mission statement for the whole compilation: after a decade in the industry, Storer was still writing songs that pulled toward home rather than away from it.
Tears
Another new addition to the Calling Me Home collection, “Tears” leans into the emotional directness that defines Storer’s ballad writing. There’s no metaphorical dressing here — the song sits with grief and processes it in real time, which takes a level of vocal control that a less experienced singer just doesn’t have. It’s the kind of track that hits differently depending on what you’re going through when you press play, which is a mark of genuinely great songwriting.
Sitting Here with Fay
Opening 2007’s Silver Skies, “Sitting Here with Fay” was produced by Josh Cunningham, who also contributed to some of the album’s more textured arrangements. The song sets the tone for a record that peaked at number 60 on the ARIA Charts but earned a Best Country Album nomination at the 2008 ARIA Music Awards, losing out narrowly to Kasey Chambers and Shane Nicholson’s Rattlin’ Bones. As an opener, it establishes the record’s conversational, storytelling energy immediately — you feel like you’ve been dropped straight into a kitchen-table chat.
Land Cries Out
Also drawn from Silver Skies, “Land Cries Out” pairs environmental urgency with Storer’s trademark plainspoken delivery. It’s less personal-narrative and more collective statement, giving voice to the land itself in a way that echoes the drought commentary running through much of her catalog. The arrangement builds patiently, letting tension accumulate rather than rushing toward a big chorus payoff, which suits the gravity of the subject matter.
Hayrunner
From 2019’s Raindance, “Hayrunner” brings a bit more rhythmic bounce than the album’s title track, riding a tighter groove that translates well to a live festival setting. It’s one of those songs built for the Gympie Music Muster crowd — practical, working-life imagery set to a melody you can clap along to. Storer’s ability to write genuinely upbeat material without abandoning her rural authenticity is underrated, and this track is a good example of that balance.
Firefly
The shimmering title track from her 2005 album earned Storer the Female Vocalist of the Year Golden Guitar in 2006, and it’s easy to hear why. Produced by Garth Porter, Firefly the album peaked at number 24 on the ARIA Charts and was nominated for Best Country Album, ultimately losing to Keith Urban’s Be Here — solid company to be in. The title track itself is more atmospheric than a lot of her catalog, using the firefly image as a small, flickering symbol of hope, and her vocal performance here is genuinely one of her most controlled and expressive.
Katherine
Written during her time living in the Northern Territory town of the same name, “Katherine” from her 2000 debut Chasing Buffalo is a narrative song that personifies the Katherine River as a dangerous, magnetic woman pulling a man back into old habits. It’s clever songwriting — turning geography into character — and the tension in the storytelling makes it one of the most structurally interesting songs in her early catalog. Meanwhile, it’s also a neat piece of biography: Storer worked as a schoolteacher in Katherine before her music career took off, so the setting is drawn from real life, not research.
Worth Your Love (feat. Sammy Storer)
Released in June 2025 as the title track of her eighth studio album, “Worth Your Love” is a genuinely moving family collaboration — a duet with her niece Sammy Storer, co-written by Sammy and Storer’s brother Doug, with production handled by Matt Fell. The song traces a young woman stepping into adulthood and the mix of pride and fear that comes with watching her go, and hearing two generations of the Storer family harmonizing on that theme adds real emotional weight. The album went on to earn Album of the Year and Contemporary Country Album of the Year nominations at the 2026 Country Music Awards of Australia, and this title track is the clear emotional anchor of the whole project.
TOP END TOUGH (with Tom Curtain & Luke O’Shea)
Released in April 2025, “TOP END TOUGH” is a rowdy, collaborative single crediting Tom Curtain, Luke O’Shea, and Storer together, celebrating the resilience of Northern Territory life. Curtain — who runs the Katherine Outback Experience and is known for performing while riding horseback — brings his outback showman energy, while O’Shea’s co-writing and production instincts give the track a punchy, anthemic structure built for a festival stage. It’s one of the more upbeat, communal tracks on this list, and it makes total sense that these three artists, all deeply connected to the Top End, would eventually team up on a song this specific.
Layers
A 2024 single that later found its home on Worth Your Love, “Layers” strips things back to a more introspective register compared to the album’s bigger collaborative moments. The song title itself hints at the approach — peeling back emotional complexity one verse at a time rather than resolving everything in a tidy chorus. It’s a strong example of how Storer’s mid-2020s writing has matured into something quieter and more patient than her earlier, more direct ballads.
Under Darwin Stars
Also released as a standalone 2024 single before landing on Worth Your Love, “Under Darwin Stars” leans fully into the Top End imagery that’s defined so much of Storer’s catalog since her Katherine teaching days. There’s a nocturnal, wide-open stillness to the song that suits its title — this is music for a warm night with the sky doing all the talking. Pop it on through decent earbuds during an evening walk and the acoustic detail in the mix genuinely earns the atmosphere the title promises; our earbuds comparison is worth a look if you’re chasing that kind of clarity.
Taken together, these twenty-four songs trace an artist who has never once chased a trend — she’s simply kept writing about the land, the family, and the community she knows better than anyone else in Australian music. From “Buffalo Bill” in 2000 to “Worth Your Love” twenty-five years later, the throughline is honesty, and that’s rarer in country music than most people admit. Which of these hits the hardest for you?
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Sara Storer’s most awarded song?
“Raining on the Plains,” her 2002 duet with John Williamson, is one of her most decorated songs, sweeping Vocal Collaboration of the Year, Single of the Year, and Song of the Year at the 2004 Golden Guitar Awards.
How many Golden Guitar Awards has Sara Storer won?
Storer has won more than twenty Golden Guitar Awards across her career, a record haul for an Australian female country artist, including a then-record seven trophies in a single ceremony back in 2004 for Beautiful Circle.
What is Sara Storer’s newest album?
Her most recent studio album is Worth Your Love, released in June 2025, featuring a title-track duet with her niece Sammy Storer and later earning nominations for Album of the Year and Contemporary Country Album of the Year at the 2026 Country Music Awards of Australia.
Is Sara Storer related to other country musicians?
Yes. Her brothers Doug and Greg Storer are both songwriters and collaborators on her catalog, and more recently her niece Sammy Storer joined her as a featured vocalist on the 2025 single “Worth Your Love.”
What themes define Sara Storer’s songwriting?
Drought and rain, rural family life, and her years living and teaching in the Northern Territory town of Katherine are the recurring threads running through most of her catalog, from early tracks like “Katherine” through to recent singles like “Under Darwin Stars.”