Kaitlin Butts Turns ‘Hello, Honky Tonk’ Into a Musical
Eight songs from the 14-track album become a half-hour story set inside a fictional bar.
Kaitlin Butts has released Hello, Honky Tonk: The Mini Musical, a 30-minute film that brings eight songs from her fourth studio album to the screen. Written by Butts and co-directed with Chris Beyrooty, it follows the characters who gather at the fictional Kait B’s Honky Tonk Saloon.
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The film includes “The Bartender,” “Everybody Wanna Sing a Country Song,” “Still Got It,” “The Joker,” “Bacon Naked (Take It from Me),” “What More Could You Want,” “Crazy I Can Be” and “Midnight, I’ll Always Be Yours.” Butts takes the role of master of ceremonies, introducing the bar’s regulars as the songs unfold. She said the project let her build a visual world around music she had long imagined in scenes. “I’ve always seen my songs visually, and getting to create an entire world around them and invite everybody in has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done,” she said.
The production’s costumes and visual details were also shaped by Butts, who worked with stylist Cathy Hahn and shared her own drawings and collages as references. The dress on the album artwork began as a Butts sketch before Hahn helped realize the design. Hahn’s background in costume design informed their collaboration.
Hello, Honky Tonk is a 14-track album recorded in Nashville with producer Tofer Brown. Its barroom setting draws on Butts’ interest in the vaudeville vignettes of Chicago and Disney World’s Country Bear Musical Jamboree. The songs take in country influences from Merle Haggard and Roger Miller to the Chicks and Miranda Lambert, while the album’s characters move through the familiar roles of a neighborhood bar.
Butts is scheduled to continue the project with her Hello, Honky Tonk Live and In Person Tour in December. The five announced dates are in Texas and Oklahoma: College Station on Dec. 10, Helotes on Dec. 11, Corpus Christi on Dec. 12, Oklahoma City on Dec. 17 and Fort Worth on Dec. 18. Tickets are listed at kaitlinbutts.com.
