Kaitlin Butts isn’t your everyday singer-songwriter from Tulsa. While many artists are in Nashville to find a record deal or play on Broadway or meet co-writers, Butts is mostly in Nashville because it’s the major music industry hub. But she’s successfully carving her own career path, performing her own authentic brand of country across the US and beyond while sharing stages with some major artists.
Her latest album, Roadrunner!, was recorded in Nashville with go-to steel guy Russ Pahl (Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean), fellow Oklahoman Vince Gill on background vocals, and other session players. “That’s all due to my producer Oran Thornton (dc Talk, Eli Young Band),” Butts said via phone from the East Nashville home she shares with her husband, Cleto Cordero of popular Texas country band Flatland Cavalry. “Oran can call the best (players) in town. And the other part of Vince being on it, I met him at the Grand Ole Opry, we were playing on the same night. Afterwards I got to meet him and he was just so kind and said to reach out, that if I ever needed anything just holler. So I did.”
Known for a fun theatricality in her performances, Butts brings to the stage a red-dirt confidence and frequent ranch garb that bring Miranda Lambert to mind. “I would say to an extensive degree that Miranda’s the reason for sure why I play guitar,” Butts said, “and for the first song I learned to play, which was ‘Kerosene’. And I have always loved the cowgirl aesthetic, always as a kid was in musical numbers, and before I even knew I wanted to be a country music singer I was always somehow dressed in a cowgirl get-up.”
Butts said she’s been taking some time off after a busy year of recording and roadwork. “I’ve just been touring off of Roadrunner!,” she said. “We did 160 shows last year, we toured every corner of this country, so I’m just kind of at the moment catching my breath and getting ready for the next run of shows. I’m going on tour with Lainey Wilson this year, and going to the UK next month for two and a half weeks for the C2C (Country to Country) Festival, so I don’t have any plans to record at the moment. I’m more in the relax-and-get-ready-for-the-next-thing phase of the cycle.”
Butts is partnered with Bootleg.live, which helps artists monetize their live performances by capturing high-quality concert audio and making it available for purchase, both at the venue and for a limited time after a particular show. Through the Bootleg.live app, a fully authorized mixed and mastered recording straight from the soundboard can be purchased. “With certain shows they’ll come in and record live,” she said, “and then people, whether they were at the show and want to relive it or couldn’t make it to the show, can get the audio and feel like they were there themselves.”
As so many artists are today, Butts isn’t as intent on getting that once all-important record deal as she is on maintaining control of her career. “I haven’t really done label shopping or anything like that,” she said. “I’m with a distribution label so I have more control, which is kind of where I’m wanting to be. I know there are benefits to being on big major labels, it works for a lot of people and maybe I’ll be on one someday. But for right now I’m pretty happy just having some (distribution) help, but not anything that would impede my creative control or dictate when I should release music or anything like that. I think a lot more people are going that way.”
While Butts has written with other artists like Angaleena Presley (Pistol Annies), she’s not looking to do a lot of co-writing. “Whenever I’m writing it’s more just for myself, I’m not typically trying to get cuts,” she said. “If I write with anyone it might be my husband. Most of the time I’m really just writing for myself, and when I go into co-writes they know they’re writing for my next thing.”
You can keep up with her at kaitlinbutts.com.
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