Charles Wesley Godwin
Biography Charles Wesley Godwin
Charles Wesley Godwin
When you release a project like Charles Wesley Godwin’s 2023 critically acclaimed Family Ties — a highly personal, 17-song diary-like LP that was both universally praised and also catapulted the West Virginian singer-songwriter to new heights in his career — the outside perception is that there are greater expectations on whatever music comes next. Ask Godwin however, and he’ll tell you that instead of dwelling on any chatter that accompanied such a revered release, he did what he always has done: Godwin simply kept on writing. “I’ve learned from the past that it’s not good to stop,” says the singer-songwriter – a humble songsmith whose music is deeply felt, undeniably intimate, and, over the past few years, has been connecting with audiences in ways he could have never imagined when he began his career just over a decade ago. “The more consistent I am and the more I’m putting in the time and effort to my songwriting, the more the songs come and the more I’m able to be productive.”
The result of such dutiful persistence was one of Godwin’s most prolific years yet: the musician estimates he wrote nearly 30 songs in 2024 and, in the process, most excitingly arrived at his stunning new 7-track EP, Lonely Mountain Town, due out February 28, via Big Loud. It’s a quieter, more contemplative affair than Family Ties, to be sure. But it also contains some of the most thrilling songs of Godwin’s career to date. “It was really cathartic for me,” he says of re-teaming with his longtime producer, guitarist and bandmate, Al Torrence, at his Music Garden Studios in New Brighton, PA, to complete a handful of moving and at times melancholy cuts that ring with surefire sincerity and truth. Godwin notably recorded his vocals separately for the first time in his career in order to give them even more life and resonance.
Written principally on the road, Lonely Mountain Town is at its heart a collection of snapshots and quiet moments in life set to tune: these are tales of a traditional country-songwriting mindset. The sort of poetic musings that find Godwin raking through situations with a fine tooth comb and peeling back the layers on the most delicate situations thrown our way. “These are character songs,” Godwin explains. “Most of them aren’t about my life. They’re just little pieces that I’ve taken from traveling.”
To that end, there’s the blue-collar tale of a natural gas welder (“It’s Her Move”) inspired by a fly-fishing trip Godwin took to Northern New Mexico; the first single “It’s The Little Things,” whose melody and storyline of embracing the simple pleasures, popped into Godwin’s head one morning in the shower; the EP’s title track that, while originally written for a movie, was so vivid and inspiring Godwin couldn’t let it go (“I’m tearing at the seams/What holds me in is day to day routine/Without you, in this lonely mountain town”); or “Dead To Rights,” a song Godwin describes as his version of a sequel to Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,” penned and performed alongside acclaimed singer-songwriter and Big Loud labelmate ERNEST.
It’s thrilling, Godwin says, to now have creative license. Not that he has ever caved to outside pressure. But following the success of Family Ties, and the incredible reception he’s seen accompanying it, particularly when on the road playing to sold-out audiences, he’s never felt more invigorated to stay true to his creative muse.
“It’s a good feeling to know that,” he says of having such artistic independence. “ It gives you major confidence going forward.”
Such unobstructed creativity allowed Godwin to work on the EP with musicians he’d long admired. Working with ERNEST on “Dead to Rights” taught Godwin how sometimes the best songs can be written without painstakingly obsessing over the smallest detail. “I saw that maybe it isn’t the worst thing in the world to sit down and try to write a song in 10 minutes and see how it turns out rather than toiling over a line for a week,” he admits. And then there is the truly magnificent cover of Jason Molina’s “Hammer Down,” which paired Godwin with one of his musical heroes, Scott Avett. Godwin became fast friends with Avett after touring alongside the Avett Brothers as co-openers on Luke Combs’ 2024 “Growin' Up and Gettin’ Old” stadium tour. Most nights onstage, they’d duet on “Hammer Down.” It was a no-brainer then to enlist his new friend to record the song with him for Lonely Mountain Town.
“It meant a lot to me and I think it turned out really cool too,” Godwin says proudly of recording with Avett. “It brought new life to a song that a lot of people haven’t been exposed to.”
Godwin started gigging intensely in the mid-2010s and independently released his beloved debut album, Seneca, in 2019. Like so many musicians however, the pandemic would put a wrinkle in his plans: Godwin was unable to properly tour behind Seneca and, in turn, couldn’t build up the momentum and fanbase he’d hoped for.
When musicians were able to return to the stage, however, Godwin and his longtime band, the Alleghany High, pounded the pavement behind his second album, 2021’s How The Mighty Fall. The pace and incredible response to his live show was only amplified post-Family Ties: Godwin has since appeared on ESPN’s Sportscenter, performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and CBS Saturday Sessions. He also made his Stagecoach and Bonnaroo debuts in 2024.
Now, as he heads back out on the road this winter and spring, playing a slew of sold-out shows across the country while also releasing Lonely Mountain Town, Godwin is thrilled with where things stand. To him, success moving forward is about continuing to do things his way.
“I just want to continue writing like I have been and continue to record when I can and to keep producing and making music,” he says without hesitation. “Because that’s what makes me happy.” He smiles and adds, “If I keep doing that, then I think everything else will work out just fine.”
