Kaitlin Butts “Roadrunner!”

An often more upbeat departure from form that proves there’s nothing wrong with embracing the more playful side of things.

For anyone who has been following Kaitlin Butts’ career for a while, her new album “Roadrunner!” might seem like something of a surprising departure; after all, in the past there have been serious songs covering subjects like numbing childhood trauma with anything possible (2022’s ‘She’s Using’) and murdering an abusive father (2019’s ‘White River’), but now she’s joyously covering Kesha. I mean, sure, ‘Hunt You Down’ is a song about threatening to murder a cheating spouse, but there’s a tongue-in-cheek, wink-to-camera element to the whole thing that feels completely fresh. If you ask Butts herself, however, she will tell you that she’s simply showcasing a side of herself that’s  “much closer to what [she’s] like onstage” where she expresses “real emotion and truth but also humor and a tendency to poke fun.”

The playful nature of the album is apparent from the short, opening instrumental ‘Overture: My New Life Starts Today’, lifted directly from Rodgers and Hammestein’s ‘Oklahoma!’, before segueing neatly into the album’s title track, a fiddle-heavy, upbeat reflection on the not-so-often sung about fun elements of touring life. The down-home and rootsy ‘Wild Juanita’s Cactus Juice’ is an impish tale of one women’s roadside stand that sells alcohol so good that “it might just save the world”.

On ‘Come Rest Your Head (On My Pillow)’, Vince Gill makes a guest appearance and the results are something quite beautiful. Gill’s soft harmonies contrast perfectly with Butts’ strong, powerful vocals, adding a softness and vulnerability to a song that could have tipped into feeling more of a one-dimensional take on one-night love. Returning to the earlier theme of ‘Oklahoma!’, Butts and her husband, Flatland Cavalry frontman Cleto Cordero, do their own take on ‘People Will Say We’re in Love’, and it works well, its sincerity sweet without ever being sickly. Equally genuine is Butts’ sentiment on ‘Buckaroo’: “I wanna be your ride or die / Always there for you / I wanna be your pal, your gal / ‘Til all my days are through,” she insists. “Your back’s against the wall / And you don’t know what to do / I’ll be your ride or die / I’ll be your buckaroo.”

Butts co-wrote two songs with Highwoman and Nashville songwriting powerhouse Natalie Hemby, the first being the unabashedly confident ‘Other Girls’ that finds Butts’ telling a prospective partner that she’s not a chance they want to regret not taking: “This ain’t no trick / There ain’t no riddles / I fire quick / Love like a pistol / And you’ll lose your shot / If you don’t take it tonight.” The second co-write with Hemby, ‘You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead to Me)’, sees Butts’ eager to forget about a past lover as she mischievous ponders: “You know, I think I have heard of that man / I think, I think I heard he got run over by a train / Mauled by a bear, maybe, hopefully.” 

Co-written with Pistol Annie Angaleena Presley, ‘That’ll Never Be Me’ feels like a bit of a spiritual successor to Butts’ 2015 track ‘Gal Like Me’ as admits, against twanging guitar, that she can never change for someone else: “Can’t you see, I’m free as the west is wild / I ain’t gonna think before I speak / If you wanting someone mild and meek / Baby, that’ll never be me.” ‘Spur’ is a soaring country ballad, simple in structure but compelling in the power of the pain expressed (“When she’s feelin’ lonely / You don’t reach out your hand / When you fence her in / Do you feel like a man”), while ‘If I Can’t Have You’ falls on the other end of things, rockier and far grittier as Butts’ vows to end the object of her desire if they can’t be together (“Say, I’m crazy, say I’m l ruthless / Call me anything you want / But you couldn’t call me baby / So I guess I’m out for blood / Probably burn it to the ground”).

Aside from the aforementioned songs from ‘Oklahoma!’ and Kesha’s ‘Hunt You Down’, Butts’ puts her own spin on ‘Bang, Bang (Poor Jud Is Dead)’ – originally written by Sonny Bono, performed first by Cher and then later notably by Nancy Sinatra – in a way that starts quite nonchalant but become increasingly threatening as the music swells epically. If the song ‘Roadrunner’ looked at the upside of touring, ‘Like I Should’ takes the opposite perspective as Butts feels lonely on the road (“Two days ago, hotel alone / I wish I could call you on the phone / But I just sat in gloom”), while on ‘Followed You to Vegas’ she sings chipperly of the happiness of a quick Las Vegas wedding of which she “never looked back” from, as ‘Elsa’ sees her pondering old age through the lens of a woman with dementia with a dash of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ thrown in for good measure.

The winning sound of “Roadrunner!”, with its wry humour, truthfulness and reliably folksy sound, is far from something to run away from, in fact, it deserves to be welcomed with open ears by audiences in Oklahoma and far beyond.