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Photography by Laura Ord
Tulsa-born Kaitlin Butts uses her music to navigate complex narratives like generational trauma, abuse and dashed dreams. Juxtaposing such heavy lyrical content with rich pedal steel and her textured, dynamic vocal range, Kaitlin can creep into the hearts of both the most traditional of country lovers and the newer wave of 20-something listeners.
Kaitlin opened her set at Two Step Inn with 'It Won’t Always Be This Way'. The first track on her latest album What Else Can She Do, 'It Won’t Always Be This Way' is a call to arms for those in toxic relationships that one day it will get better.
During 'White River' her voice called out like a battle cry, leading the song with “I hope y’all are ready for some sad yeehaw country about generational trauma”.
Singing about avenging the pain of a parent while growing up an abusive household, Kaitlin takes the things gossips whisper about in corners and turns it into something beautiful. She wears the scars of women she knows and tell their stories so those listening can be comforted in knowing they’re not alone.
Photography by Laura Ord
Of her song 'What Else Can She Do', she says, “So many people are just trying to get through their day jobs so they can go home and go to sleep, just to wake up and do it all over again. I think that we’re all her. We’ve all been her at some point in our lives where we feel like we’re stuck in the same day-to-day monotony.”
You could see the truth in those words watching the crowd singing along. There’s something in her music that resonates with every woman; stories that have longed to be told, skeletons we didn’t create pushed into closets we bare the weight of.
In the world of country music where women are often considered one-dimensional heartbreakers or life partners, Kaitlin is highlighting that we are so much more, and our stories are just as compelling. Kaitlin Butts is a profound storyteller, an incredible vocalist, an a powerful woman.
