Kaitlin Butts
Kaitlin Butts knows a thing or two about Oklahoma!
As a theater-loving kid raised in Tulsa, Butts frequented community theater productions of the famed Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, a summer tradition shared with her mother. She remembers the sweet dishes of berries and ice cream served by the theater and freely admits her first childhood crush belonged to Curly, the handsome cowboy at the center of the story.
Today, Butts is proof that theater kids can make damn good country music. She’s now a troubadour who’s been touring much of this year in support of Roadrunner!, an album inspired by Oklahoma! with which she plants her flag in the country universe. Over the course of its 17 songs, Roadrunner! showcases Butts’ knack for sharp writing, with a pinch of dramatic magic sprinkled in. Saturday, her tour returns to her adopted hometown for a show at Exit/In.
How did she come to write a concept album loosely based on an 81-year-old musical? The idea surfaced during COVID lockdown while orchestrating themed movie nights with her family — including her husband Cleto Cordero, singer-songwriter in Flatland Cavalry.
“It was Broadway night, and my husband had never seen any musicals growing up,” Butts says. “I showed him Chicago, which is my all-time favorite, and he loved it. We went to Oklahoma!, and as I was sitting there, I realized that I had written songs that pair well with the movie. … I was like, ‘Oh my God, why haven’t I thought of an Oklahoma! concept?’ I completely became obsessed with re-creating that and seeing what those songs would sound like today in the country music world.”
Butts began watching the 1955 film version of Oklahoma! over and over. Before the idea fully took hold, she’d already penned a few songs that could slide into the show’s canon, like playful album standout “Wild Juanita’s Cactus Juice” and mold-breaking ballad “Spur.” She kept writing, mixing autobiographical inspiration with the musical’s time-tested tale.
On a track list printed inside the Roadrunner! LP, she time-stamped where songs fit during the movie. She weaves in songs about all-night rambling on the road, like the titular tune, and ones about double-crossing men, such as the tongue-in-cheek romp “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead to Me).” She taps into untamed love on stripped-back country-folk number “Buckaroo” and pulls no punches on the show-shopping anthem “Other Girls (Ain’t Havin’ Any Fun).” She closes the album with “Elsa,” a heart-wrenching story about lost memories, inspired in part by time she spent playing for nursing home residents, some of whom became her friends.
She worked on the project for roughly four years, recording Roadrunner! in November 2023 at Ronnie’s Place Studio in Nashville.
“It was a hard thing to sell in the beginning stages,” she recalls. “I’m like, ‘I have this idea, no one’s really done this before.’ It’s hard to imagine what it can be. … It had to have that same feel [as the source material]. You just hope that it turns out the way you have it in your head.”
Butts isn’t the only Oklahoman to sing on Roadrunner!, either. After a chance meeting backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, she recruited Vince Gill to harmonize on “Come Rest Your Head (On My Pillow),” a love song soaked in fiddle and longing. She wasn’t sure Gill would answer the call — “He’s a busy man,” Butts observes — but he agreed almost immediately.
“It’s always fun to cheer on my fellow Okies,” Gill chimes in via email. “This kid, Kaitlin, has a great future and I’m grateful to be a part of this early stage of her career.”
On the road, Butts may bust out a cover or two, like her rendition of Chappell Roan’s megahit “Red Wine Supernova” or the blistering Roadrunner! version of “Hunt You Down,” a country ripper from Kesha’s 2017 comeback LP Rainbow. On “Hunt You Down,” she sings: “I ain’t never hurt nobody / Never buried a body / Never killed no one … Just know that if you fuck around, boy / I’ll hunt you down.” Butts sees Kesha’s tune as a new take on the musical’s classic number “All Er Nuthin’.”
“With me it’s all or nothing — I will kill you if you mess around,” she says, laughing.
If you go to Saturday’s show, expect some old-fashioned stagecraft to bring you into the Western milieu, complete with prop horse, hand-painted backdrop and saloon doors. The tour is Butts’ opportunity to create a little of the immersive, community-building magic that being in the audience at the theater is all about.
“Fall in love with country music. Maybe you laugh and cry and have fun. Be friends.”
