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Kaitlin Butts’ ‘Hello, Honky Tonk’ Out Now via Republic Records

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Kaitlin Butts, Tulsa born country singer and songwriter, portrait by Thomas Crabtree

Tulsa-born singer-songwriter Kaitlin Butts’ highly anticipated fourth studio album, Hello, Honky Tonk, is out now via Republic Records, alongside a new music video for “The Bartender” that offers a first look at the mini musical Butts has created to bring the album’s colorful cast of characters to life.

“I always see my songs visually,” shares Butts. “When I’m writing, I’m not just thinking about the music, I’m seeing the characters and what’s happening in the room. With Hello, Honky Tonk, I wanted to bring every corner of that bar to life. A mini musical felt like the perfect way to let people step inside this world we’ve been creating and I can’t wait to share it.”

Named one of Rolling Stone’s most anticipated albums for 2026, Hello, Honky Tonk is a love letter to the honky tonks and nightlife that have shaped Butts’ life and career. Recorded in Nashville with producer Tofer Brown (Carter Faith, Willow Avalon, Little Big Town), the 14-track collection creates a world of its own, populated by the characters listeners might recognize from the dance floor, behind the bar or tucked away in the corner booth.

The new video for “The Bartender” brings that world into focus, offering a first glimpse of Butts’ larger creative vision for the album. Inspired in part by the vaudeville vignettes of Chicago and Disney World’s Country Bear Musical Jamboree, Hello, Honky Tonk unfolds like a musical set inside a neighborhood bar, where every character has a story and every night brings a new scene.

Co-written by Butts, Natalie Hemby and Brown, “The Bartender” pairs steel guitar with plenty of swagger as a mixologist lends an ear to those in need of a judgment-free confidant. The track features the baritone of TJ Osborne of Brothers Osborne on backing vocals, adding a sultry menace to the song’s portrait of the person behind the bar who knows everyone’s secrets.

“TJ’s voice was exactly how I pictured the bartender in my head. It’s got that deep richness that makes you feel like this man has heard every secret in town and isn’t gonna tell a soul,” shares Butts, cheekily adding. “I also love that we got to put one of the most masculine voices in country music on this track, who also happens to be one of the gayest.”

For Butts, the album’s concept grew from imagining all the characters and storylines unfolding inside one honky tonk, with each song offering another perspective on the nightlife that connects them.

“The thought behind the concept was how in Chicago, the character Roxie Hart is dreaming up what her show would look like and all the people in it,” says Butts. “I picture all of this happening at Skinny Dennis here in Nashville. These are all the different people in the room. There’s the bar fight that’s happening. There’s the bad girl that just got off work. There’s me being the entertainer. There are so many people that really love the nightlife. It’s a connector for people.”

And yet even as Butts honors the merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail and a line-up of surprisingly sassy and lovelorn teddy bears, the sound is pure country, folding in other influences ranging from Merle Haggard and Roger Miller to the Chicks and Miranda Lambert.

“All these songs are very deeply personal to me, and I relate to them word for word,” she says. “But my intention is never just to be relatable. I hope people find their own lives within the whole thing.”

HELLO, HONKY TONK — TRACK LISTING

  1. Introducing: Hello Honky Tonk (Kaitlin Butts)
  2. I Wanna Be Bad (Kaitlin Butts, Natalie Hemby)
  3. The Bartender (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Natalie Hemby)
  4. Never Really Mine (Kaitlin Butts, Lola Kirke, Maggie Antone)
  5. I Make Cowboys Cry (Kaitlin Butts, Shane McAnally)
  6. The Joker (Kaitlin Butts, Jessie Jo Dillon, Sasha Alex Sloan)
  7. Everybody Wanna Sing a Country Song (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Luke White)
  8. What More Could You Want (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Natalie Hemby)
  9. Still Got It (Kaitlin Butts)
  10. Crazy I Can Be (Kaitlin Butts, Tofer Brown, Lauren Hungate)
  11. That Makes One of Us (Kaitlin Butts, Lori McKenna)
  12. Hell I Don’t Know (Kaitlin Butts, Natalie Hemby, Luke Dick)
  13. Bacon Naked (Take It From Me) (Kaitlin Butts, Natalie Hemby)
  14. Midnight I’ll Always Be Yours (Kaitlin Butts, Jessi Alexander, Jon Randall)

The album arrives on the heels of a whirlwind week for Butts. She made her national television debut with a performance of “I Wanna Be Bad” on “TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle” while also stopping by LGBTQ+ nightlife favorites Flaming Saddles and Pieces Drag Bar. Butts celebrated the album with a release show at Lucinda’s in New York City on Tuesday, Oct. 27, before returning to Nashville for a sold-out performance at Skinny Dennis on Thursday, Oct. 29, the very honky tonk that helped inspire the album’s world.

With Hello, Honky Tonk, Butts builds on the momentum of her critically acclaimed 2024 album Roadrunner!, a bold reimagining inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! The album landed on numerous year-end best-of lists and featured her viral anthem “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me),” which has amassed more than 157 million TikTok views and 67 million global streams.

Butts will continue celebrating Hello, Honky Tonk with her Hello, Honky Tonk Live and In Person Tour, with December dates in Texas and Oklahoma. Tickets are available at kaitlinbutts.com.

HELLO, HONKY TONK LIVE AND IN PERSON TOUR DATES
Dec. 10 — College Station, TX — Harry’s Northgate
Dec. 11 — Helotes, TX — Floore’s Country Store
Dec. 12 — Corpus Christi, TX — Brewster Street Ice House
Dec. 17 — Oklahoma City, OK — Tower Theatre
Dec. 18 — Fort Worth, TX — Billy Bob’s Texas

For the latest news, music and tour dates, visit kaitlinbutts.com and follow @kaitlinbutts on Instagram and Facebook, and @kaitlinbuttsmusic on TikTok.

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We Speak Country

George Strait Accepts Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame’s Rare Career Maker Award, Insisting “They Made My Career”

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10 hours ago

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October 29, 2026

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In a moment that underscored the extraordinary relationship between George Strait and the songwriters whose work has punctuated his career, Dean Dillon and Gary Nicholson brought the Country Music Hall of Famer to the stage Monday evening (Oct. 26) to present him with the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame’s prestigious Career Maker Award. Given only once before – to Reba McEntire in 2018 – the honor recognizes individuals outside the Hall whose artistic contributions have helped songwriters achieve careers worthy of induction.

Fresh off his induction into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame earlier this year, Strait took the opportunity to turn the spotlight back toward the writers who have helped make his catalog and career one of country music’s most enduring, right after a joke about his aversion to the fame side of the business fellow honoree Taylor Swift acknowledged in her speech.

“When I first heard that they wanted to give me this award, I’m going like, ‘Okay, I’ll come only if I can make a speech.’ You know how good at that I am,” he shared, laughing.

“I think they got this turned around, because they made my career,” Strait then told the audience, referring to the writers whose songs he’s recorded. “That’s the way I feel. I truly do and I always will.”

The sentiment is backed by a remarkable legacy. Over more than four decades, Strait has recorded 264 songs written or co-written by 72 members of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, including 65 Top 40 singles. Of those 72 writers, 44 had not yet been inducted into the Hall when Strait first recorded their songs – an extraordinary testament to his ability to recognize great songwriting and bring it to a worldwide audience.

Reflecting on his longstanding connection to Nashville, Strait acknowledged that his relationship with Music City had not always been an easy one, but that the city and its songwriting community had shown him tremendous support over the years.

“I’ve always loved coming to Nashville and recording here and being here and being around these guys and seeing them from time to time,” he said. “I just want to say thank y’all. All of you who sent songs my way and made my career. I appreciate it very much. Thank you.”

Strait’s remarks captured the spirit of an award that recognizes something fundamental to his legacy: the power of an artist to champion a songwriter’s work, give a song a life beyond the writing room and help the song and its message resonate with an audience that might otherwise have remained out of reach.

For the writers whose songs have become inseparable from Strait’s catalog, the honor offered a fitting acknowledgment of the mutual respect at the heart of that relationship. And for Strait, the evening was another opportunity to credit the people he has long considered essential to his success.

As he made clear from the stage, the King of Country Music knows exactly who deserves the credit.

“They made my career.”

Photo: Gary Nicholson, George Strait and Dean Dillon. Photo credit: Ed Rode.

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