Her hair is looped and tied up in an enormous black bow. A pink vintage handbag dangles from her fingers, and she swears by a deep green sweater that matches her eyes, overset with an antique necklace.

Everything about her is dainty, delicate and simply aches 1930s starlet.

Butters, a Somerville folk singer, will be performing at Club Passim in Harvard Square Sunday. At the age of 23, she has already made a name for herself on the local folk circuit. Sunday will be her sixth time playing Club Passim.

Butters has been involved with music ever since she can remember. She has been singing since she was young, and she picked up the dulcimer at age 16 following the path of her idol, poet, Cuban revolutionary and musician, Richard Farina.

A few years later she began playing the guitar as well. She is almost completely self-taught. She says she learned to play music by listening and applying. "I collect a lot of records and I learn everything off the records."

Themes and appearance are very important to Butters. "Half the performance is the way that you look," she says. She only ears the throwback dresses for her performances.

Butters grew up around Boston, but her family originated from the Midwest, a concept that has had enormous influence on her work. She is inspired by the archetypes of the American West: images of horses and cowboys.

She also finds the concept of profound tragedies fascinating. "Like the image of swallows swarming from trees in the movie Bonnie and Clyde," she says. "I want to capture that feeling in music. I think it's nice when people can hear sad things, because then they have hope that there are other people out there who feel the same way and understand them. It's lonesome but it's hopeful in its loneliness."