By: Alex Lund
On Sunday, July 20th, I attended the magical opening show of Tacoma/Seattle’s newest outdoor music venue, Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park. Headlining was the always whimsical Sierra Ferrell with the support of alt-country singer-songwriter Kaitlin Butts. I was lucky enough to catch up with Kaitlin for part 2 to our last interview when she embarked on her Roadrunner Tour. We chatted about life on the road, career milestones, collaborations, and new projects on the horizon.
Kaitlin kicked off an energetic set that felt reminiscent of country icons like Miranda Lambert and Shania Twain, serving up some of the best live vocals in country today. She imbues many of her songs with her comedic flair and has some great interactions with the crowd. In a favorite moment of mine, she told the crowd of her love of karaoke and sang a surprisingly melancholy but hopeful cover of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle” that had the crowd belting the chorus with her.
As her set ended, concertgoers spotted a pod of orcas across the venue in Puget Sound that provided entertainment as we waited for Sierra Ferrell to come on.
Amid a beautiful sunset, Sierra began her set and reminisced about her days busking in Seattle’s famous Pike Place Market.
Sierra’s stage quite literally bloomed as the show went on, filled with mechanical flowers opening and closing, and large magical mushrooms surrounded in moss. She was decked out in her usual flair – a custom blue 3-piece suit and hat, all hand-painted with flowers and the saying “Heavy Petal.”
Surrounded by adults and children alike, all dancing to the magic of their music. I had a wonderful night with both Sierra and Kaitlin, and consider them two of my favorite female vocalists of all time.
Kaitlin Butt’s Interview
By: Alex Lund
A: It’s been almost eight months since I first interviewed you. How do you feel your career has changed during that time?
KB: I feel like it’s kind of stayed the same but different.
I mean we’re still in the same band, still the same setup, still the same band, still the same songs. Just got a little spotlight on us right now. We’re just trying to capitalize on all that.
A: Did you expect You Don’t Gotta Die (to be Dead to me to be the song to pop off online the most?
KB: I really wanted it to when I recorded it. I really thought that it would, I really did, in the beginning and then a whole year goes by. Because I mean we play it live, and so I knew that it always got a good reaction then. I just didn’t know how after a year. . .I’m like “okay it hadn’t really had its moment that I thought but each show it kind of does” but I did not expect it to go viral on TikTok.
A: And did you have a favorite TikTok that anyone made with the song? Any specific person?
KB: The one that I really screamed about was Reneé Rapp. I called my manager at 11 o’clock at night and I was like “hey this is not an emergency but it kind of is. . .Reneé Rapp just made it” and she’s a fellow musical theater kid turned pop singer and I just adore her so it was cool to see her lip-syncing or just to have it in the background.
A: You completed your first headline tour in 2024 when we last spoke. Has your perspective on touring changed at all?
KB: Not really I mean, I think you just have to keep a positive attitude. We’re all in this little metal tube all the time and we really just have to, I don’t know, I feel like I’m not going to take it for granted. If we ever get in a bus like this time, because we do get to see a lot more. And I think in a (tour) bus you kind of get trapped in these little concrete patches, and so being in a in a van you get to really like see the town that you’re in and drive and kind of take it in. Although it is hard, I definitely have to keep a good mentality about it.
A: I saw you joined your husband’s band Flatland Cavalry on a few of their tour dates and have a couple more coming up. What’s it been like sharing the stage with your partner and getting to tour together and separately?
KB: We’ve been doing that for the last nine years and it’s kind of all we know and we really love it’s nice to be with somebody that really fully understands what it takes to do this job as a lead singer and getting to play shows it just is everything that we love to do all at the same time and just love it and always want to keep doing it till till we die.
A: You’re also opening for a bunch of other artists over the next few months. Are there any that you’re looking forward to specifically?
KB: Lately I mean these Sierra shows have been like what I’ve been looking forward to a lot. Her audience is the kind that you want for yourself. They’re music lovers, they’re at gates, they’re just like total like lyric people and song people, and I’ve loved being on the road with her. But, next is Laney Wilson which is going to be a whole different animal to tackle. We’ve got 20 minute sets and places that are hours and hours away from each other. But, I’m excited to be just around her and just see how she does it on that level, and taking some of her crowd, and just to watch her. I’m excited to see her.
A: It’s a totally different scale, yeah.
A: You were recently featured on a track with Marcus King and Jamey Johnson which I was so excited about. What was it like working with the both of them?
KB: I just met both of them pretty recently, I’ve met Jamey at the Country Music Hall of Fame when we were both in an exhibit there, so I got to just briefly meet him and I’m so like nervous energy around him because he’s like so cool, I feel like I get really nerdy around really cool people like that. And then I just met Marcus like a few weeks before we recorded that, at the Opry and I really wanted him to like play electric guitar for me but I was like “save it for later like you’re going to be friends like just be cool” and he asked me to sing on that song literally that next day, because I think his wife Briley kind of told him. And so I was really excited to be in the studio with them. I didn’t get to be in the studio with Jamey, they did it separately, but um working with Marcus is fun. He’s just down to make cool music.
A: And when we last spoke you mentioned Miranda Lambert as one of your biggest influences, and not long after you were featured next to her in an exhibit in the Country Music Hall of Fame, how did that feel?
KB: Feels pretty surreal to have your outfit and your name just right next to the reason why you were doing this. Like she’s super iconic and I feel like we both have that little fire in our bellies, where we just like love revenge and fire, and just writing about what we feel and the world as we see it and so to be alongside someone that made me want to pick up guitar, it felt really legendary and full circle moment.
A: Yeah totally and speaking of iconic country music spaces you’ve now played the Opry multiple times, the Ryman, and you got to meet Reba.
KB: Yes.
A: Do you have any new career goals for next year? Because it seems like the world is your oyster right now.
KB: Man I’m I’m needing to come up with a new set of goals because I’ve checked off a lot of them. I think the next ones for me are like playing festivals at night, and that just means getting a better slot in the evening, and just selling more tickets so we can bring more music to more people, and just getting served opportunities that make the music spread wider and wider.
A: And lastly are you working on any new music that you can tease, or anything coming up?
KB: I think a lot of it’s out. Everything that I’ve been working on is finally out, like the Marcus thing, I did a song with Tyler Braden earlier this year and Zack Telander. I did a lot of collabs this year. But I am working on something that’s very like the opposite of “Sad Yeehaw Vibes” yeah, very happy. But not anything like new of mine really. But something as a little placeholder for the next project.
*This interview has been edited for clarity and concision.
