Album Review – Kaitlin Butts – “Hello, Honky Tonk”

Country (#500) and Traditional Country (#510) on the Country DDS.

Sure, it’s amazing that Ella Langley has shattered glass ceilings and elevated the possibilities for women in country, and that Zach Top has brought the appetite for traditional country roaring back among the greater population. But if these gains are truly going to be codified in the greater country music universe, opportunities must trickle down to the standout talents who been waiting their turn, paying dues, and doing country music the right way before it was cool or commercially applicable.

Kaitlin Butts is certainly one of those characters, and a candidate for a deserved breakout of her own even beyond her already surging status, and perhaps via her new album Hello, Honky Tonk—her first release on major label Republic Records. She’s much more than just the villain in the Ella Langley “Choosin’ Texas” video, or the wife of Cleto Cordero from Flatland Cavalry, or familiar from some viral TikTok/Instagram thing, or the “chick singer” burly dudes claim they can actually get into. She’s a fighter, a survivor, a hell of a singer and songwriter, and perhaps the hardest working woman in country music.

Any worries of Kaitlin Butts making a calculated turn towards pop in this moment are quashed pretty immediately. Hello, Honky Tonk is COUNTRY, and specifically looks to sketch 14 characters (or perhaps a few shades of the same character) that one might encounter in the neon glow and wood paneling of a local watering hole. Kaitlin got here keeping it country, and she ain’t changing now. After all, it’s a more country moment in country, and Kaitlin Butts is here to meet it.

Incredible vocal performances delivered with confidence help define this record as an inspired, passionate, and full-bodied experience, exemplified by one of the album’s early singles “Never Really Mine.” Bolstered by songwriting contributions from top-self names such as Natalie Hemby, Lori McKenna, and Jon Randall, Kaitlin’s vision is involved but enjoyable and accessible, cohesive but not completely conceptualized in a fey or self-absorbed approach.

Kaitlin Butts sticks close to many of her tried and true themes: not allowing herself to be inhibited, not taking any shit from two-timing men or the hussies who might be after them, and highlighting women who are strong, but also willing to be fallible and vulnerable in a way that the audience can relate to.

Some of the tracks of Hello, Honky Tonk might seem a little too unserious and superfluous for certain audiences, while the cussy nature of some moments might also run afoul of some of the traditional country audience this album otherwise appeals to. But how country she kept it is endearing, as are many of the songs. Even when it seems like Kaitlin isn’t saying much, she’s saying so much more through the arc of the album’s narrative.

It’s not that Kaitlin Butts has lacked the songs, the albums, the talent, the experience or dues, or even the intangibles to be a participant in the country resurgence in country. She’s had all these attributes in spades, and set the foundation for some of the women who’ve also be swept up in this moment. Now the hope is that Hello, Honky Tonk is where timing, hard work, and preparation meets opportunity, and Kaitlin goes from the honky tonks to her own big stages.

8.3/10

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Stream/Purchase Hello, Honky Tonk

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Song Reviews:

1. “Introducing: Hello Honky Tonk” (Kaitlin Butts)

Written by Kaitlin Butts, but narrated by Lainey Wilson, this spoken word track sets the setting for an album inspired by the characters found in a honky tonk.

2. “I Wanna Be Bad” (Kaitlin Butts, Natalie Hemby)

This feels like Kaitlin’s version of “Sin Wagon,” and is certainly a fun and entertaining track, especially for the repressed women out there in the country music population. You wish it attempted to make a deeper or more salient point, or even had a more savory hook. But it gets the job done as one of the album’s lead singles.

3. “The Bartender” (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Natalie Hemby)

If there is a song on the album where the Nashville influence on the sound crept in, this might be the candidate. But this song still fits Kaitlin Butts and this record really well. And goodness, the lyrical hook when it hits, it hits hard. It’s one of those classic country themes that Butts and her co-writers crafted into something that feels new and fresh. “The Bartender” is one of the best songs on the album.

4. “Never Really Mine” (Kaitlin Butts, Lola Kirke, Maggie Antone)

This is the second song Katilin Butts has written based off an interaction she had at the Two Step Inn Festival in Texas. The first was “Come Rest You Head (On My Pillow)” about a pair of … cowboy pillows. “Never Really Mine” also finds inspiration from female anatomy, and looks to affirm herself from the fears of being left. But beyond the theme, this song is a brilliant showcase of Kaitlin’s vocal prowess, and where she can take a song with her talent.

5. “I Make Cowboys Cry” (Kaitlin Butts, Shane McAnally)

This could be the viral hit of the record. It has the entertainment value of “I Wanna Be Bad,” but with a much juicier and memorable melody and chorus, and a pentameter that really wants to make you get up and move. This song fits in the Kaitlin Butts universe very well, and leans on her strengths as a singer and artist for a rowdy track.

6. “The Joker” (Kaitlin Butts, Jessie Jo Dillon, Sasha Alex Sloan)

This is one of the songs on the album that makes you appreciate just how country Kaitlin Butts and producer Tofer Brown kept this album. It’s also one that is worth reminding yourself that Kaitlin Butts is not always singing from a first person perspective, but character sketches, though perhaps that are informed from her own personality and worldview.

“The Joker” is about a woman very jaded with the world of men, at one point issuing the line, “Ain’t all men the same at the end of the day, and they hate when you say it like that.” This might cheese off some of the “KB is my favorite chick singer” crowd, and perhaps it’s meant to. But it’s also a very true perspective some women carry throughout their lives, based off of bad experiences.

7. “Everybody Wanna Sing a Country Song” (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Luke White)

This song isn’t just country, it’s a straight back poach acoustic hoedown complete with thigh slaps. You can consider it a rustic version of Alan Jackson’s “Gone Country” in some respects, seemingly speaking to the moment of a country resurgence, and perhaps commentating on it beneath the surface, however subtly. This is a fun song, even if it’s rather fleeting.

8. “What More Could You Want” (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Natalie Hemby)

This is arguably the most touching moment of the record, and one that deserves to spark an even deeper conversation about what we ask from performers these days, from not just being songwriters, musicians, and entertainers, but content creators, cultural commentators, and so much more. What’s been so key to Kaitlin’s success is her willingness and ability to do whatever she’s tasked to do to make the dream of being a country star happen. While other artists complain or fall short, she steps up, learns new skills, takes on difficult schedules, and still shows up on stage with a smile.

It’s not that Butts is immune from this constant environment of giving of yourself and still feeling like you’re falling short. That’s what she expresses so deeply in this song. She’s spoken out about the challenges she’s faced, and that women face specifically. But it’s her perseverance that has paid off.

Strictly on a musical level, the song is charmed by the decision to make it a piano ballad, and it helps it stand out in a 14-track album. However, it does feel like the tempo is slight rushed, or that some phrases could retard to make the performance feel a bit more emotional and intimate.

9. “Still Got It” (Kaitlin Butts)

If you come to this album looking for love songs, you’ll have to go searching for them, but eventually you’ll land on Track 9, which is the closest approximation to one. Once again, Kaitlin and the music create the perfect setting, including the great steel guitar work by Russ Pahl. The song still has a lot of heartbreak and reticence in it. But the allure of being admired is the feeling Kaitlin wants us all to ruminate on.

10. “Crazy I Can Be” (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Lauren Hungate)

One of the great things about the artistry of Kaitlin Butts is she’s willing to embrace being the buy guy or villain, because she recognizes that she does it so well. Hello, Honky Tonk misses those one or two (or three) Kaitlin Butts murder ballads, but “Crazy I Can Be” gets close, while still remaining more fun an accessible instead of creepy. This is also just a country heater. This could be another track from the album that could really take off on social media.

11. “That Makes One Of Us” (Kaitlin Butts, Lori McKenna)

Similar to “The Bartender,” this song is smartly-written, and a great bar stool rumination that takes the concept Kaitlin had in mind for this album, and realizes it through a character and a story. The waltz time really helps bring the emotion out of the song, and both the writing and the music create the setting for the song perfectly. We probably shouldn’t be surprised a co-write with Lori McKenna turned out this well.

12. “Hell I Don’t Know” (Kaitlin Butts, Natalie Hemby, Luke Dick)

This is a great song, made even better by choosing to accompany Kaitlin with an acoustic guitar only, and to let the story develop into one about heartache and being left instead of making that obvious from the start. It’s the little details and lines like “Do tornadoes have a quota, do they just hate Oklahoma?” that really endear this song to the audience. It’s the album’s most intimate moment in one that needed one for balance and variety.

13. “Bacon Naked” (Take It From Me) (Kaitlin Butts, Natalie Hemby)

This song is fine and fun, but it’s one of a few of the tracks that feels somewhat superfulous. “Bacon Naked” has an early Musgraves aspect to it, while fans of Roger Allan Wade will point out he built a song around this premise back in 2005, while the saying probably goes back much further than that.

14. “Midnight I’ll Always Be Yours” (Kaitlin Butts, Jessi Alexander, Jon Randall)

This is a great nightcap and bookend to the album, and yet another waltz from Kaitlin Butts concludes the work on a strong note. Though Hello, Honky Tonk covers a lot of ground and evokes a variety of emotions, ultimately it’s about the loneliness that pervades heading down to the local dive haunt and hoping to leave with love, and often, failing to. This is not a love story. This is a life story, and one with country music and the scenes and characters you encounter looking to fill bottomless holes with alcohol, and looking to paper over broken hearts with good times.

Bravo, Kaitlin Butts.

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