Some songs feel borrowed. Some songs feel earned.
And then there’s “Tulsa Time” — a tune so soaked into the soil of Oklahoma that only an Okie can truly make it grin again.
“Tulsa Time” came into the world in 1978, born in a hotel room in Oklahoma City when Danny Flowers, road-weary and iced-in during a snowstorm, picked up his guitar and wrote a little shuffle to kill the boredom.
Don Williams cut it first — smooth, calm, that golden baritone — and took it all the way to No. 1 on the country charts. Then Eric Clapton turned around and put his fingerprints on it, pushing it into the rock world. But no matter who sings it, the heart of the thing never left the state line.
“Living on Tulsa Time” ain’t just a lyric.
It’s a way of moving, a rhythm you learn in the bars, backroads, and two-lane nights of eastern Oklahoma. Enter Kaitlin Butts — A Voice With Oklahoma in the Bone Marrow Kaitlin Butts isn’t pretending. She’s not “channeling” anything.
She is Oklahoma —
Born and raised in Tulsa, shaped by red dirt winds, revival tent harmonies, honky-tonk heartbreaks, and that stubborn little streak Okies carry around like a second heartbeat. She grew up singing in talent shows, Opry stages, and school choir rooms — the kind of kid who could knock out a Patsy Cline tune before she could drive. Her songwriting has always blended humor, heartache, and frontier toughness, but at the core of it all is the one thing that can’t be faked:
She’s a damn okie.
And she sings like one — open vowels, a wry grin in the phrasing, and a tenderness tough enough to survive a dust storm.
With the Yeehaw Sessions, Kaitlin isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. She’s just stepping into a song that belongs to her people, her region, her story.
Her version of “Tulsa Time” feels: lighthearted, playful, but honest — like the song’s coming home after being out on the road too long.
She doesn’t dress it up. Doesn’t overthink it.
She just leans in and lets that Okie spirit shine through like neon off a wet street in downtown Tulsa. It’s fun. It’s breezy. It’s Kaitlin being Kaitlin — the exact reason we all love her.
In a world full of polished, plastic covers, Kaitlin’s cut hits different because she’s not chasing anything.
She’s celebrating where she’s from. She’s tipping her hat to the legends. And she’s proving, once again, that the Red Dirt women are carrying the torch in ways the old guard never saw coming.
Kaitlin Butts singing “Tulsa Time” isn’t a cover — it’s an Okie reclaiming something that was hers all along.