Charlie Collins, from Tamworth originally, has come together with Kasey Chambers for a new single

'Honey Can We Run Away' is Collins' latest release, and one of the first with Island Records Australia.

It's based on Ernest Hemingway's novel Across The River and Into The Sea.

"One of my good friends and mentor Kasey Chambers joined me on this track and sprayed her sweet vocals all over it," Collins said.

"This is the first song I've ever written inspired by a book. I wrote it at the time I was reading Across the River and Into the Trees by Hemingway. It's takes you on a journey of love that, no matter how bad you want it, it can never be.

"It's about longing for someone that causes you to lose sleep. You can't seem to hide how you feel, so dreaming about them is the only way you can finally be together. Even though that still isn't enough, for now it will have to do."

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The melancholic ballad, featuring delicate guitars and violins, is the first instance that Collins hasn't written a song based on her own life. Instead she crafts a rich portrait of lovesick lamentation with a protagonist who wishes for another life and settles to 'hide away' in dreams.

Stories have always been key to her work, after growing up with music-obsessed parents in Tamworth.

"From a young age, my dad always drilled in the importance of storytelling in songs. That was always something that has stuck with me. I guess that's why I write all the time," she explained.

'Honey Can We Run Away' is another first for the Sydney-based artist, recording with one of her biggest musical influences. Just a matter of days ago, Collins also released another single, titled F*** It.

With a friendship that began when a nine-year-old Collins was joined by Kasey Chambers on stage when Collins covered her song The Flower, to 2019 when Collins was invited to tour on Chambers' The Captain 20th Anniversary Tour, 'Honey Can We Run Away' is the first time the two alternative country artists have come together on a recorded track.

"When I was nine Kasey surprised me on stage and sung one of her songs with me (maybe because I was butchering it). To have her singing one of my songs with me all these years later is truly an honour," Collins said.

Collins, who was a member of bands Chasing Bailey and Tigertown, also notes Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline as her other main music inspirations.

In 2018 she decided to go solo and released her acclaimed album Snowpine in 2019, which went on to be nominated for ARIA's Best Country Album and won the award for Best Independent Country Album at last year's AIR Awards.

She has supported artists Orville Peck, Gang of Youths, Dwight Yoakham and at the early age of 13, played stages with Keith Urban.

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