People in Oklahoma and Texas have been talking up Kaitlin Butts for about a decade, long before the national press caught on. She came to country sideways, out of musical theater, pop and alternative rock, until Miranda Lambert pulled her over as a teenager, and the theater kid never really left. What Else Can She Do (2022) took on addiction and generational trauma. Roadrunner! (2024) reworked Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma! across 17 tracks.
Hello, Honky Tonk, released October 30, 2026, takes its cue from the film version of Chicago. Each song is a character you might run into at a bar on a night out, and Lainey Wilson narrates the spoken-word intro. Tofer Brown produced it; Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna and Shane McAnally are among the co-writers.
CMT put her in its Next Women of Country class for 2025, the same year she joined the Opry's Next Stage. She's toured with Dierks Bentley, Lainey Wilson and Morgan Wade, opened for Ella Langley, and played the villain in Langley's "Choosin' Texas" video.