Kaitlin Butts is a Tulsa-born country musician known for her theatrical storytelling, vibrant showmanship, and soulful songwriting. With a deep love for the dramatic side of country music, she discovered her passion for performing at a young age and has since developed a radiant voice that brings unbridled emotion and humour to her music. Now based in Nashville, Butts has channeled her lifelong love of musical theatre into her third album, ‘Roadrunner!,' a modern reimagining of the soundtrack to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Oklahoma!.' Released in June this year, the 17-track LP showcases the full force of her artistry, blending high-concept storytelling with candidly autobiographical elements.
We were thrilled to catch up with Kaitlin at the Long Road festival and talk to her all about her career.
Thank you for speaking to us today, we know just what a busy person you are. How's the trip and the jet lag?
Yesterday morning I woke up and felt like I had a 100lb magnet inside on my skin! (laughing) It was the hardest thing getting up and getting out of bed but I made myself and my husband (Cleto Cordero, lead singer of Flatland Cavalry) get up and we had a really nice day around London.
Did you see some sights then around town yesterday?
We did. I'm very much a coffee and food person so we went to Mayfair Chippy yesterday, it's got a Michelin star, for fish and chips. It was very cool. We went shopping, it was a great day.
I loved seeing your set in the Interstate tent earlier on. I didn't realise just what a powerful voice you have live. Are you professionally trained or just self taught?
I grew up doing musical theatre, since probably around the age of five. I was trained until the age of 15 and then I went to college for music too! It's what my degree is in! I grew up in a less traditional household and I got kicked out of choir because they didn't like my voice there in terms of it being shrill and powerful rather than blending with everyone else's. (laughing)
I had a great vocal teacher back in Broken Arrow who always encourage me to be different. ‘Sing out Louise,' is what she always said to me. And that's what I did. I think that kids and young adults often get cornered into being forced to sing like somebody else or in a way that doesn't suit their voices whereas she always encouraged me just to be myself. Which is loud as hell!!!
There's a lot of messages of empowerment and resilience in a lot of your songs. You were also very open and honest about your own experiences of things like domestic abuse. Do you find it easy to talk openly on stage or is it something that you've had to learn how to do?
It's gotten easier, for sure. I've always had a hard time not talking about uncomfortable things and there's always a lot of shame when it comes to families and not talking to people and I've grown to just really not care.
So many people come up to me after shows and tell me about their own experiences, just now, in fact, when I was walking over here I met a girl who was in hysterics from relating to my song called ‘Blood.' When you hear stories like that, that's what Country music is all about, reaching out and connecting with people and if you just connect with one person in your crowd, you will have done your job.
I wrote ‘Blood' with Angaleena Presley about a narcissistic parent and we had such a connection with each other over that topic. We shared our experiences of that with each other and Angaleena said, “I think we are talking about basically the same person!' Singing about something that touches so many people is so important and very empowering.
You walk into a room having never met Angaleena Presley before and by the end of it you've come out with a song and an intimate, shared experience! It's amazing how that happens with writers and artists in Country music.
I don't know how it happens! Even walking out that day I didn't really know or realise the magnitude of what we'd written. My mom came with me for that trip because I was terrified to go to Nashville by myself and so we went back to the hotel room with her saying, ‘I think we might just have written a really good song!' Angaleena said, “I don't think we wrote a radio song but I think we just wrote a good one.' She's such a joy and an intelligent person, I just want to be her! (laughing)
Congratulations on your new album, ‘Roadrunner.' It's a fascinating album and a great listen. Was the ‘Oklahoma!' aspect always part of your mission statement or did that emerge organically?
A little bit of both. Everything shut down in 2020 and my husband and I were watching lots of movies together during the pandemic. We did different themes every night and he told me that he had never watched musicals growing up and I was like, ‘Wow!' so I wanted to show him some of the things that I loved and that made me me as a musical theatre kid. I showed him ‘Chicago,' and then we put ‘Oklahoma!' on and I figured there was no way he wasn't going to like it, it being cowboy themed and all.
I realised that I had a couple of songs that went with the visuals to the musical and it made me curious to see if I could generate some more. The more I thought about it, the more I realised that I could pair songs with the musical and then I became completely obsessed and began to write towards it to! (laughing) I'm really proud of how it turned out.
Build me your Mount Rushmore of your four favourite musicals.
Oh my goodness! I love ‘Chicago,' that's my number one favourite. ‘Oklahoma!' obviously would be on there. I love ‘Grease' and that's one that I sometimes forget counts as an actual musical! The last one would be ‘Wicked' I think. Anytime I'm tired out on the road I turn on ‘Wicked' and that keeps me awake for another two hours!
What was the easiest song on the album to write and what was the hardest?
‘Roadrunner' was easy for me to write because I just did a little brain bubble of all the things that drive me crazy when we are out on the road and then tried to make them all rhyme whilst the plumber came over one day to fix something! (laughing) I was just sitting on the couch waiting for him to leave writing the song!
The hardest one to write was ‘Elsa,' the last song on the album. It's about all the people that I've met playing at a nursing home once a month and what they've taught me about life. One of my good friends, Courtney Patton, came over to my house one day and watched me cry for about 4-5 hours over this song and helped me get it into the shape that you can hear it in today. That was a hard one to write because it was very sentimental.
What drew you towards recording ‘Bang Bang'? (originally recorded by Cher in 1966)
I've always loved that song, I wanted to mesh that song with ‘Poor Jud is Dead' from ‘Oklahoma!' – I realised that they would go together pretty seamlessly. It makes Jud the victim too, which is pretty cool.
I love your videos. They are so funny and engaging to watch. Are you a natural in front of the camera or do you have to build yourself up to to it?
That musical theatre upbringing helped me out a fair bit there! (laughing) I would say that it comes pretty naturally to me, I find it pretty fun to be animated infront of a camera. My manager was like, ‘Man, you really shot that out of the park, I've seen a whole different side to you!'
Have you got a favourite video that you've made? I do really like ‘Hunt You Down.'
That's a pretty cool video for sure, it was done as a one shot. I love ‘Wild Juanita's Cactus Juice', I feel like I am in my own version of ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' on that one. That's my favourite.
I love the version of ‘Whiskey Lullaby' that you and Cleto did together. Your voices work really well together. Did that ever reach Brad Paisley do you know?
I have no idea, I have no idea but I would love to think either him and Alison Krauss might have heard it at some time!
Tim and Faith did an album together fairly recently. Is that something that you and Cleto have ever thought about doing – a project together?
We haven't yet but I would be down with that. We've talked about writing together but we've been so busy with our own things that it's hard to put those aside and focus on something else. Maybe someday? Singing together does come really naturally to us and our voices compliment each other which is why I like to do songs or little things with him when I can. We have a lot of fun working together too and I like hanging out with my husband! (laughing)
When can we expect you back in the UK do you think? There was a lot of love for you in that tent earlier and you won a lot of friends.
Oh gosh, I'm not sure. Maybe next year perhaps? I don't think I can fit anything else into the schedule for this year but I would love to come back next year and play some more shows if anyone will have me. I can tell the people over here love organic and authentic music and the audience was so engaged and receptive towards me and my music, which was so cool to see.
Check our Kaitlin Butts' new album ‘Roadrunner' – available now in all the usual places.
