Kaitlin Butts’ Hello, Honky Tonk: Release Date, New Music, and What to Know
Kaitlin Butts will release her fourth studio album, Hello, Honky Tonk, on October 30, blending country storytelling with a cast of characters inspired by nights spent in honky tonks.
Written by Amanda Tempel
Date Published: August 18, 2026
Kaitlin Butts is taking listeners inside the honky tonk for her next album.
The Tulsa-born singer-songwriter will release her fourth studio album, Hello, Honky Tonk, on October 30, 2026, via Republic Records. The project is a love letter to the honky tonks, nightlife, and stages that have become a major part of Butts’ life on the road.
Ahead of the album’s arrival, Butts has released “Never Really Mine” and her latest song, “I Wanna Be Bad,” offering an early look at the characters, attitude, and theatrical energy behind the new record.
When Does Kaitlin Butts’ Hello, Honky Tonk Come Out?
Hello, Honky Tonk arrives Friday, October 30, 2026. Recorded in Nashville with producer Tofer Brown, the album follows Butts’ 2024 release Roadrunner! and marks her first full-length project since signing with Republic Records in October 2025.
For the new album, Butts imagined the songs as different characters and scenes unfolding over the course of a night at a honky tonk.
“With every song, I saw a character in a honky tonk,” Butts said. “I’ve always loved the film version of Chicago and the way the musical numbers are presented almost like these little vaudeville vignettes, where you get to step into a character’s mind for a few minutes. I wanted to bring some of that feeling into a honky tonk and create this whole cast of characters that you might run into on a night out.”
She also points to Disney’s Country Bear Jamboree as an early country music influence, adding, “This album is really a love letter to the honky tonks and the stages that have become my life on the road.”
Butts pictures that world taking shape in a place much like Nashville honky tonk Skinny Dennis.
“I picture all of this happening at Skinny Dennis here in Nashville,” she said. “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 night life. It’s a connector for people.”
“I Wanna Be Bad” Offers Another Preview of the Album
Butts released “I Wanna Be Bad” on August 14 as the latest preview of Hello, Honky Tonk.
Written by Butts with Natalie Hemby, the song captures the uninhibited side of a night out and the occasional urge to throw out the rules and cut loose.
The song follows “Never Really Mine,” which Butts wrote with Maggie Antone and Lola Kirke. Together, the two releases begin introducing the personalities and situations that make up the world of Hello, Honky Tonk.
Hello, Honky Tonk Follows Roadrunner! and The Yeehaw Sessions
Hello, Honky Tonk follows Butts’ critically acclaimed 2024 album Roadrunner!, which was itself built around a distinctive concept inspired by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma!.
Following her signing with Republic Records in October 2025, Butts released The Yeehaw Sessions, featuring her interpretations of Chappell Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova,” Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” The Chicks’ “Sin Wagon,” and Don Williams’ “Tulsa Time.”
The EP also included “You Ain’t Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me),” which has surpassed 157 million TikTok views and 67 million global streams.
Butts has continued expanding her work beyond her own releases in 2026. She joined Willow Avalon on “Hypothetically Speaking,” appeared in Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” music video, co-directed and wrote the treatment for Flatland Cavalry’s “Unglued,” and joined The Band Perry for “You Lie (Forever Version).”
She has also toured with Lainey Wilson and Ella Langley, headlined her sold-out overseas European Cowgirl Experience, and was featured in the Country Music Hall of Fame’s American Currents exhibition for the second consecutive year.
What to Know About Kaitlin Butts’ New Album
Hello, Honky Tonk arrives October 30, 2026, via Republic Records.
With “Never Really Mine” and “I Wanna Be Bad” offering the first previews, the album finds Butts building an entire night inside a honky tonk, filled with entertainers, regulars, troublemakers, and the other characters who keep the bar going long after dark.
More details about Hello, Honky Tonk, including its complete track list, are expected ahead of the October release.
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