With her signature Oklahoma twang and gripping storytelling, Kaitlin Butts has been steadily gaining momentum in the country music scene, amassing millions of monthly listeners on Spotify and earning praise from critics who believe she deserves even greater recognition. Rolling Stone describes her latest album as "unafraid to test boundaries."

This summer, she took the stage at major festivals like Lollapalooza and Under the Big Sky, and is currently touring the U.S. with Dierks Bentley. Next week, she’s set to join Flatland Cavalry for a UK tour. I caught up with Kaitlin to delve deeper into her journey and what’s next. Also, listen below.

Whereabouts are you now in the world?

• I'm in Nashville, Tennessee right now.
• Yeah. Well, it's a great place there, isn't it. 
• Have you got any favorite hangout spots there? I should be going in maybe a couple of months.
• Oh, yeah. Well, there's definitely some cool spots. I love a place called Urban Cowboy. They've got really great cocktails and pizza. If you need a nice dinner spot, I like Cafe Roze on the east side. I live over on the east side, so I'm partial to the east side. Another good cocktail place is Pearl Diver. If you're here on a Tuesday, you can go down to the Legion and do Honky Tonk Tuesday.
• There's not a shortage of things to do here in Nashville.
• Yeah, it's great, especially the Broadway area. 
• So I was listening to your album earlier, Roadrunner. It's kind of an up-and-down roller coaster. I believe it was inspired by a musical, because there's the overture at the beginning as well, isn't there? It starts with...

• Yes, it is inspired by Oklahoma the Musical.
• Yeah, that's a bit different, a bit unusual for a country album, but yeah, there’s some real good tracks on there, you know.
• Thank you. I grew up doing musical theatre and so I've always loved, you know, playing, singing to songs like that, but I wanted to make Oklahoma the Musical in the country music space and what those songs might sound like in today's world.
• Yeah, because your video is good as well. Did you direct that yourself as well? For Roadrunner?
• I definitely did a lot of Roadrunner, but as far as the other ones, I had a lot of help from Chris Beyrooty, who, you know, I told him the scenes that I wanted to use and the vibe and the storyline, and then he just took it from there and just made it even better than I could have imagined. So I have fallen in love with, you know, the art of making music videos, and he did a great job.
• Yeah, it's good. I like the humor in that as well. It's a good video. 
• I believe you're coming over here, is it next week?
• It is, yeah. I will fly to London on Thursday. Let's see, I play Leicester, Brighton, London, Bristol, Manchester and Paisley, Scotland.
• Yeah, because I'm looking to catch you at the Manchester one, because I live quite near, about an hour from there. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
• That'll be a fun one.
• Yeah, because I think the UK audience will really dig you, you know, with the traditional sort of country music vibe that you've got going on.
• Yeah, absolutely. I feel it feels really cool to be so far away from home and go to places where you wouldn't think that people would relate to country music or like a rural sounding song, but every time I go somewhere, like even California or New York, people still show up in cowboy boots and stomp their feet and clap their hands just like they do in Texas, and it feels like you're home and are playing to people who appreciate country music, even though we're in London, you know, it feels very cool to see people from all walks of life really love country.
• Yeah, because I mean, obviously these last few years over in the UK, it's really seen an increase, you know, and everyone's dressing up and, you know, it's a lot more popular than it was anyway.
• Yeah.
• You look to have a busy schedule all the way through to next year as well in the USA, I noticed. 
• Yeah, I do not stop until probably December, I think it's 14th, and we end the tour in Oklahoma. So I'm excited to end it all in my home state.
• Yeah, that's brilliant.
• Well, I'm definitely looking forward to catching you in Manchester anyway. 
• Just one last thing, is there anything you'd like to say to your fans and followers out there? I always give the chance to say whatever.
• Yeah, I hope that you check out the album. If you like musicals, even if you don't like musicals, I hope that you listen to the record. It's very well thought out. If you've never seen Oklahoma, the musical, you should go watch it. It's on Amazon Prime. I don't even know what y'all have over there, but it's a fantastic musical and film. It's very timeless, very funny. There's murder, there's humor, there's acid trippy stuff on there. And I wanted to recreate that in the country music space. So if you're into, you know, a crazy person with OCD trying to make something awesome, I hope you listen to the album and check out the music videos that we've made. I've worked really hard on it, and I hope that even if you don't watch Oklahoma, the musical, I hope that the songs resonate and make you connect with country music and make you feel like you're in Oklahoma yourself.
• Oh, well, yeah, nice one. Anyway, thank you very much and like I say I look forward to catching you in Manchester.
• Me too, I hope to see you there.
• Yeah, thank you very much.
• Have a good rest of your day.
• Thank you. 
• Thanks, yeah, bye.

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and Managing Director of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.