You already know this new Kaitlin Butts music is about to blow some minds.
Seven years since she released her 2015 debut album Same Hell, Different Devil, Kaitlin just announced her sophomore project, What Else Can She Do, slated to drop on April 15th.
Aside from a couple one-off singles, like last years “How Lucky Am I,” penned about her husband and Flatland Cavalry frontman Cleto Cordero, we haven’t gotten a ton of new music since that first record.
What Else Can She Do was produced by Oran Thornton, who’s known for working with Angaleena Presley, one third of the Pistol Annie’s supergroup and co-writer on the lead single off this record, “Blood”.
The seven-song record will tell a story about seven different women who face different challenges at different stages of life:
“These songs are all stories of different women facing the question: what else can she do? Based on her circumstances, what choices does she have, right or wrong?
I don’t think that life is all that pretty sometimes, and it comes with pain and pushing through hard times, being stagnant, going through the motions, not knowing what to do, or just being flat out angry with whatever life has put on your plate.”
And if you know anything about Kaitlin, then you know she isn’t afraid to take a deep dive into the nitty-gritty stuff and talk about the unique struggles that we all face as women in some form or fashion:
“I see myself in all of these women in these stories.
I see these women in my friends and family all around me going through divorce, abuse, infidelity, financial instability, addiction, generational trauma, family issues, and life-altering tough times, but somehow are still resilient and come out on the other side okay.
I hope this album makes you feel seen and comforts you in times of darkness. Know you are never alone and it won’t always be this way.”
And the lead single, “Blood,” is a stunner of a track that addresses her feelings during the time when her parents were going through a divorce.
She was able to heal and let go of a lot of the pain she experienced as a result when she wrote this song, and you can tell she just laid it all out on the table that day they wrote it at Angaleena’s house:
“We came to the conclusion that when it comes to family, it’s ‘normal’ to accept behavior that we wouldn’t from friends. And when a friend displays toxic, abusive behavior, we can decide to cut ties and we may never see them again, but with family, it’s much easier said than done.
I left Angaleena’s house that day feeling so proud of what we had made. I felt cleansed of a lot of bottled up trauma that I needed to get out of me somehow.
It made me wanna keep writing about the truth about life, no matter how tough, sensitive, or personal it is.”
Even if you’ve never experienced divorce in the same way she did, I think anyone on planet earth can relate to a lot of the family disfunction she talks about here, big or small, in some way:
What Else Can She Do? tracklist:
1. it won’t always be this way
2. bored if i don’t
3. what else can she do
4. jackson
5. she’s using
6. blood
7. in the pines
