Following the stillborn death of his son in August 2024, West Virginia singer Charles Wesley Godwin doubled down on his faith, kicking off a road to redemption that resulted in his most personal and inspiring collection of music to date.
Christian Name, out July 24th, is a strongly spiritual collection of 13 tracks that document how God has served as a north star through the most difficult time of his and his family's lives. Much like his previous record, 2023’s Family Ties, blood bonds run deep through the compilation including on its artwork, all photos from which were shot at the First United Methodist Church in Buckhannon, WV, where his grandfather and namesake, Charles Godwin, preached at following his return home from fighting on the pacific front in World War II.
But the songs, like “Hey There Son” that see Godwin singing to his son about what to expect from the world are where those connections truly shine. The song first started getting written in 2019 when the singer was preparing to welcome his first child into the world. However, after completing one verse and the chorus he shelved it with the vision of wrapping it up on day with Lori McKenna, a vision that finally became reality after he signed with Big Loud Records in 2023.
Later on Godwin and his producer/bandmate Al Torrance recorded a demo of the song and agreed it needed a younger voice to put it over the top, leading them to turn to Wyatt Flores, whom Godwin has toured and collaborated with extensively in the past. This culminates in a perspective shift for the tune’s final verse, which has Flores taking over to sing back to his “father” about just how much his present and support has meant, from birth to adulthood.
“[Wyatt] is a bit more than a decade younger than me and has a youthful sounding voice that I thought would be a perfect fit,” explains Godwin. “It was one of those cases where the feature artist truly is essential to the song. If it was someone else or just my voice the whole way through, I don’t think it would’ve had the same impact.”
Another heartfelt partnership forged on Christian Name came with Stephen Wilson Jr., who together with Godwin co-penned the album’s closing track, “Brand New”. The off-the-wall worship song features cascading and tripped out acoustic guitar riffs that emulate Wilson Jr.’s own sound but were actually laid down by Torrance instead. The mash-up is particularly poignant due to Wilson Jr.’s own knack for documenting familial loss in his music, with 2023’s søn of dad documenting the fallout from the Southern Indians singer’s father dying.
“If I had solo written these songs, I think the album would’ve turned out too dark and depressing," Godwin estimates. “Working with these other writers really helped give a nice balance between the sorrow and hope on the record.”
That balance will be tested on the road as Godwin gets out to tour extensively in support of Christian Name on a co-headlining tour with Dylan Gossett set for this summer followed by stops on Kacey Musgraves’ “Middle Of Nowhere” tour in the fall.
“Writing such a faith-focused album is something I’ve never done before and has been a big exercise in patience, so I’m excited to see how people receive it,” admits Godwin. “These songs really helped me through a hard time in a therapeutic kind of way, and I’m hopeful it can do the same for others out there struggling as well.”
Christian Name is out July 24 and also features collaborations with Luke Combs (“Better That Way”), Aaron Raitiere (“God’s Been Good To Me”) and dobro legend Jerry Douglas.
PHOTOGRAPHY (Cover images): Credit David McClister.
