Breakout Country singer Kaitlin Butts signs with Republic Records

Kaitlin Buttsthe country singer who had a breakout viral hit this year with “You Ain’t Gotta Die (to Be Dead to Me),” has signed a deal with Republic Recordsannounced the label on Thursday.

Butts and Republic waste no time coming out of the gate with a new release to complete the deal. They will release a five-song EP titled “Yeehaw Sessions” on November 14, which will feature her covers of Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” Chappell Roan’s “Red Wine Supernova,” Don Williams’ country classic “Tulsa Time,” and the Chicks’ “Sin Wagon” on top of a reprise of her signature song, “You Die Gotta.” “The Middle” is out as a single on DSP’s Friday.

Butts tells Amount why she went with Republic. “After I had my viral moment with ‘You AIn’t Gotta Die,’ I had so many labels reach out, and it was really the craziest moment for me, as someone who’s been at this for a very long time, to have people sniffing around like this. I originally connected with (label executive) Mary Kinney, who recently started working over there and has always been a great friend of mine. I feel very connected to Republic because I feel like their vision for me aligns with the dreams I’ve always had for myself and it feels really good to work with a team that is so hard to come to work with, and they seem to want to work as hard as I have in a long time, so I’m excited to work with them.

Republic is clearly a dominant label in the industry, but hasn’t always had a big country presence — something that has changed with the signing of artists like Miranda Lambert and Shania Twain and its alignment with Big Loud on Morgan Wallen. Butts is aware of that expansion into the genre by Republic but also cites how working with a musically broader company will meet her vision for a diverse audience.

“I think I want to fit into just the world and not hear yourself into a fair country music space, because that’s not where I feel like I exist,” says Butts. “I feel like I exist in an Americana space, or I even do pop music sometimes with my remixes. I feel like country music is for everybody, and I want to try to reach people who maybe don’t even listen to country music, but they listen to me. So aligning myself with (Republic) was the best idea, and then being on a label with people like Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift is just perfect.”

In a statement, Kinney, who serves as executive VP of artist & label strategy for Republic Records, said: “Kaitlin is a generational talent, a remarkable artist and songwriter with a clear voice and powerful point of view. She is honest, magnetic and all her own. A force live, she has built a phenomenal career through her unparalleled drive and vision that I have had as vision and vision. We are thrilled to welcome her to the Republic family. We are deeply honored to partner with her on this next chapter.

Butts attracted many new fans this year when she was the opening act on country superstar Lainey Wilson’s sold-out arena tour and was invited by Wilson to also sing a duet in the headlining set.

“Yeehaw Sessions,” the upcoming EP, is a sequel of sorts to a previous EP that Butts had released independently in 2022, also of covers, called “Sad Yeehaw Sessions.” It’s the direct follow-up to her last full-length LP, “Roadrunner!”, which came out in 2024 and spawned the single “You Ain’t Gotta Die.” (Read AmountJuly interview with Butts about that album and her breakout hit here.)

Butts has been taking to social media to talk about why she was asked to cover Jimmy Eat World’s classic rock song, telling Amount more about her feelings about it, which were partly inspired by the negative as well as positive reactions she gets on social media.

“I struggled a little bit after even ‘Ain’t Gotta Die’ happened. I had all this attention coming my way, lots of big attention — and I love attention, in general. But it came with a lot of negative comments and people just commenting on my body, face, personality, talent. And in my lower days, you kind of start to believe some of the negative comments; in your weaker moments, you say if they’re in weaker moments.

“And one night I went out to karaoke, which is what I do as a professional singer when I’m sad — go to karaoke to make myself feel better. And a girl started singing ‘The Middle,’ and I’m very visual, and I remember looking at the words on the screen and realizing that even though it’s a song that I’ve been singing my whole life, it was the first time that I really knew and what I knew about, and what I really knew about. Really needed to hear them and I just started crying from karaoke I really needed to hear those words in that moment and realize that all these opportunities are coming to me because of all the hard work, and am I going to let these keyboard warriors dampen this incredible moment I’ve been working for forever?

“And the answer is no, I don’t think so,” Butts continues. “And I started playing it live, because it really just feels like a reminder to myself to just sing it out loud and say the words that I need to just enjoy this ride. And as I played it live more and more, it felt so good to see other people resonate with it and hear those words. So I thought I have to record this version because I wanted to slow it down a little bit to something that they could really feel in the car and listen to to really get in the car and listen. me very cleansing with.”