Colbie Caillat is reimagining her hit "Realize" with the help of Mitchell Tenpenny "It's something I've been wanting to do forever," the musician tells PEOPLE Adds Tenpenny, "It ended up just like I always hoped and dreamed it would" The years are moving fast forColbie Caillatthese days. So fast, in fact, that evenshecan't believe she hasn't released a new version of her two-times platinum hit "Realize" until now. "It's something I've been wanting to doforever," Caillat, 39, tells PEOPLE from her Nashville-area home. "It just took me a while to get around to it and toalsofind the right duet partner." And just how the Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter found that duet partner is a story in itself. "Mitchell Tenpennyactually asked me to sing on one of his songs ('Guess We'll Never Know'), and I was going to ask him the very next day to sing on 'Realize,'" recalls Caillat of the country music hitmaker of songs such as "Drunk Me" and "Truth About You." "I loved the serendipitous aspect of it all. Mitchell is so wonderful; the way he sang the song and made it his own — I died." "You never know how voices will blend, but it was just so cool," Tenpenny, 35, adds in an interview with PEOPLE. "It ended up just like I always hoped and dreamed it would." Patrick Tracy Indeed, the new version of the 2007 classic certainly has a whole new emotional flare to it, with Caillat and Tenpenny's powerful voices serving up a vocal inferno on the still so-sweet song. "I already knew Mitchell was going to be great, but I didn't realize what he was going to bring to it and how he was going to really just make it his own," explains Caillat. "And then he just went wild with the ad-libs at the end and my heart melted. I'm like, 'Can this song be 10 minutes long?' I wanted it to go even longer to include all the things he added. He really just put his heart and emotion to it. He already knew and loved the song, and then he allowed himself to really make it his own." "I remember exactly where I was when I heard 'Realize' for the first time," adds Tenpenny, who is currently touring withKane Brownon theHigh Road Tour. "It was 2008 and it was my senior year of high school. After a football game, some friends and I were driving to Auburn from Nashville. We literally had a CD mix tape that included the song. I absolutely loved it, and the whole record was incredible. I've been singing with Colbie in the car for many, many years." To no one's surprise, Tenpenny played the ultimate gentleman in the music video for the new version of "Realize," allowing Caillat to shine in the spotlight of the song she wrote nearly two decades ago alongside Jason Reeves and original producer Mikal Blue. "We wanted the music video to be simple and understated and moody mystical in a way," explains Caillat of the clip directed by Patrick Tracy and premiering exclusively on PEOPLE. "We let the song just get to be heard." And there are many more country swerving songs left to be heard, as Caillat is quick to confirm to PEOPLE that there is in fact a new record on the way. "This is definitely my favorite song off of this new album," Caillat says of this updated version of "Realize." "I have so many others I'm excited about, but I think because of how it's produced and Mitchell's emotion and his voice, it just makes this one so special." Patrick Tracy Special, too, is the time Caillat now spends in her adopted hometown of Nashville, having moved there nine years ago. "I fell in love with this lifestyle," says Caillat, whoreleased "If You Love Me Let Me Go"featuringRussell Dickersonjust last month. "It just really does feel like home and everyone's so welcoming." And it's this lifestyle that has now changed her music. "I love getting to incorporate the steel guitar and the dobro, which are my favorites, into just about everything now," says Caillat, who is scheduled to perform at CMA Fest in Nashville next month. "That's how I now play my shows, very stripped down with these utility instruments as one of the lead sonic assets." And while Caillat admits that "it's hard to redo a song" such as "Realize," the act of reimagining it showed her just how far she has come in the years since its initial release. "Now when I sing it and people are still singing it back to me, I can find new meaning in the song," she explains. "It's weird how it can take me back but also recreate its own new world for me at this time." Read the original article onPeople
