Hit Artist Colbie Caillat Talks About Her Duets Album, This Time Around, Which Features Duets Of Her Hits And Some New Songs

Colbie Caillat is a Grammy-winning, best-selling artist who is known for her classic pop hits such as “Bubbly,” “Realize” “Fallin’ For You” and “I Do.” Impressively, she’s had two platinum albums—Coco (in 2007) and Breakthrough (2009)—and she’s won two Grammy Awards. She won for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for “Lucky” (which she sang with Jason Mraz), and for Album of the Year (for being a featured artist on Taylor Swift’s album, Fearless).

In recent years, Caillat has made a smooth transition into country music. Her acoustic-pop, guitar-based sound has always had elements of country, and now she has fully embraced the country genre. She moved to Nashville several years ago, and she now collaborates with many of country music’s top songwriters and producers.

Now in 2025, Caillat has just released her excellent new album, This Time Around, which is a collection of duet songs. The album contains new duet versions of her classic songs, plus three new songs. And the artists she sings with reflects her close connection with country music, and the artists, songwriters and musicians in the Nashville community.

Many top artists have joined with Caillat to sing duets on this album. This includes Maren Morris, Walker Hayes, Mitchell Tenpenny, Hillary Scott, Russell Dickerson, Jason Mraz and Chris Young, who all sing duets with Caillat on her best-known songs.

In addition, This Time Around includes three new songs: “Live Without” (sung with Maddie & Tae), “Kinda Single” (with Lee Brice) and “Can’t Say No” (with Ryan Hurd). Also on the album is cover version of Post Malone’s hit “Circles,” which she sings with Gavin DeGraw.

This fall, Caillat is launching a new concert tour, and then she’ll be embarking on a Christmas tour with Gavin DeGraw. They will be playing a combination of their popular songs, and they’ll be singing some holiday songs.

We are pleased to do this new Q&A interview with Colbie Caillat. She discusses the making of her new duets album, how she selected the artists to sing duets with, and her new songs.

DK: I like your new duets album, This Time Around. How did you come up with the idea to do this duet album?

Colbie Caillat: I wanted to put this album out and record these reimagined versions of my old songs. I’ve been wanting to do it for about five years. And then I wanted to write some new songs as well. I also do a cover of Post Malone’s song “Circles”—it’s something I do live and I really wanted to record it. And throughout the process, my team was like, “You know, you should have some of these songs be duets.” I was like, “Oh, that’d be really cool.” Then it turned into how we should do every song as a duet, and then chosse which artists would make sense per song, whether it be a friend of mine, or someone I love vocally, or I love their music or artistry. So it was a fun process to be able to narrow it down to who would fit and who was available.

DK: What are the new songs that you’ve recorded for this album?

Caillat: One new song is called “Live Without,” and it’s with Maddie & Tae. There’s one called “Can’t Say No” with Ryan Hurd, and another one called “Kinda Single” with Lee Brice.

DK: Are the music artists that you sing with on this album, your longtime friends? How did you pick these artists for your album?

Caillat: It was a combination. Hillary Scott is a friend of mine, and I asked her if she would be on the album, and it’s really cool because she chose “Try.” She said, “My daughter and I, we sing that song together all the time. I would love to sing on ‘Try’.”  And Mitchell Tenpenny, I asked him if he would sing on my song, “Realize.” He was like, “Are you kidding me? I used to sing that song in high school and harmonize to it, and I would love to.” And with Maren Morris, my producer knows her and he’s friends with her and works with her. He asked her if she would sing on one of my songs and she asked for “Fallin’ For You,” which was really cool. And I’m friends with Amos Lee and I asked him to sing on “Bubbly.”

Also, Gavin DeGraw is a friend of mine and I asked him to sing on “Circles” and we’ve done it live together on tour.

DK: I like “Brighter Than The Sun,” which you sing with Walker Hayes. It’s a nice uptempo song with good energy. How did you connect with Walker on this song?

Caillat: I’m glad you like it. Walker and I have mutual friends in Nashville, although I didn’t really know him. So my producer set that up, for him to come sing on my song and he is so much fun. He’s one of the sweetest, genuine high-energy, friendly people and he did such a great job on “Brighter Than The Sun.” I love how he starts the song, how he says “Will you count me in,” which is really funny because it’s from my song, “Bubbly.” Then after that Walker asked me to sing on one of his songs, too.

DK: “Bubbly” is one of your biggest hits. Can you tell the story of how you and Jason Reeves wrote this song?

Caillat: I started writing “Bubbly” at home in my bedroom, and honestly, I wrote the majority of it in about 20 minutes. Most of the song just came out. I remember I had my little camera there…that was how I was recording the audio, so I can remember it. And the words just fell out.

I had gone to a party a couple days before that, like a jam night. One of my friends used my guitar, but he changed the tuning of my guitar. And when I went home, I had to learn how to play the guitar in this new tuning, so that’s what inspired “Bubbly.” It was this new tone that I hadn’t played. Then I brought the song to Jason and I didn’t have a bridge for it, and he came up with that really beautiful, clever bridge to the song.

DK: On your new album, there’s a new version of “Lucky” which was originally a chart hit with you and Jason Mraz. Can you tell me about doing this new version with Jason?

Caillat: That was one I asked him. I was like, “I’m doing this reimagined album, and are you okay if I rerecord our song? Would you be happy with it?” And he was like, “Yeah absolutely, go for it.” I asked his thoughts on production style, and he was involved with the whole process on this one.

DK: I want to ask you about a couple of your newer songs. I like “Living Without,” which features Maddie & Tae. The three of you blend nicely with your vocals on that song. Can you talk about writing “Living Without,” and getting together with them?

Caillat: I’m glad you like it. I wrote “Live Without” with Liz Rose and my producers, Jimmy Robbins and Eric Arjes. It was about the relationship that I had been on and off with. And I finally felt that freeing feeling of not being so crippled by the breakup and being able to start moving on. So it was a very therapeutic writing session. Then when I was thinking of duet artists, I’m friends with Maddie & Tae. We’ve played shows together before…I love them as women. They’re the sweetest, most honest, genuine women, and I love their vocals.

DK: I also like your song “Can’t Say No,” which you wrote and sang with Ryan Hurd. How did you and Ryan get together and write that song?

Caillat: Ryan and I had played some radio shows together, and he was another one that my producers work with and are friends with. So they asked Ryan if he wanted to write a song with me. So the four of us got together and wrote that song and recorded it that day. It was something I think we all could relate to, a breakup, and somehow whether it’s a late night call or a morning text of checking back in, and rekindling a little bit. I think we’ve all experienced that, either whether we’re the one sending the text or receiving it.

DK: You’re starting a new tour in October. Can you talk about your live show and this tour?

Caillat: Yeah, I have some shows in October, and I’m excited about a Christmas tour I’ll be doing with Gavin DeGraw. Gavin sings “Circles” with me on my album. We’ll be playing both our own songs and some Christmas songs together, and it’s going to be a very special tour and performance.