According to Burtt, the show will mark the first time she’s played a large venue in Wichita, though she has long had roots here. Her father is from the city, and she frequently visited several times a year throughout her youth.
“I have such a huge place in my heart for it,” said Burtt, who now is based in Colorado. “My grandmother and I were super tight, and I love it there. I have a lot of [happy memories] there. I’m really excited to get back there in this capacity.”
Burtt is winner of the Kerrville NewFolk, Rocky Mountain Folk Festival and Westword Music awards. She’s a finalist in Mountain NewSong, Songwriter Serenade and Great American Song Contest in addition to being a longtime recording and touring veteran.
She recently spoke with KMUW about the writing and recording of “Witness.”
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Reading the lyrics on the album, and assuming that they’re autobiographical, I get the sense that there was a lot of change happening as you were writing this. Is it a relief to have songwriting as an outlet where you can reflect on those things and maybe even change outcomes in a song?
Hmm. That’s an interesting question. I actually really love that. It’s a good reminder that I have the power of the author to write the history the way I that I might want it to be. I feel like [the songs] are pretty autobiographical. They kind of reflect the moment, but I like the idea of creating an ending in song whether or not it actually happened that way. Creating a perfect ending.
The new album is titled “Witness,” and I tend to think that album titles have some intention behind them, that they reveal something about the themes explored in the songs on an album. Can you talk a little bit about “Witness” as a title and how it reflects what we hear on the album?
There’s a lyric in the song “Unfinished Business,” in the chorus, that says, “With love as my witness/you and I have unfinished business.” It’s pulled from that song, but I chose it because it felt like this record, this collection of songs, is really about me being a witness to my life in a way that I never had been before. Just being willing to look at things honestly and look at things for what they are and kind of dive in deeper to the meanings of moments in my life and “Witness” is a kind of declaration, I suppose, of being willing to do that, being willing to really look at your life head-on and being willing to not brush it under the rug or move past it quickly, but really be willing to sit with it whether it’s hopeful or hard or beautiful or ugly. Not just moving quickly to the next thing without taking stock.
I think all the songs really do that. It was a very intentional album title choice, but when I landed on it, I [thought], “That’s so it.” [Laughs.] It feels good. It feels like it marks a moment in time not only with this record but also with my songwriting, a season of deep looking.
You produced this album as well, and this was the first time that you’d done that for one of your own albums.
I had done some production for other people in years previous. A friend had asked if I would produce a record for him, and I did it as kind of an experiment. [I thought], “I have strong opinions, let’s see if I can be good at this.” [Laughs.] I helped a handful of people make records, and I liked it. I felt like it was time to do that for myself. I had, historically, given up the driver’s seat to somebody else. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think collaboration is good, and I have since started working on another record, and I’ve brought in [an outside] producer. I think having outside ears is really important.
It felt [important] for my growth as a musician and [for] learning to trust myself and believe in myself and find out if my opinions and my ideas were good. I needed to do that for myself, not just for other people. It was a great challenge.
I think part of the reason this record took so long to make is that I was in charge, I was in the driver’s seat. I had to grapple with my own perfectionism, but I’m glad I did it.
