A few days ago on my social media I confessed that I would not review Charles Wesley Godwin’s new album.
The reason was soon explained: I was afraid to tell you about a record that should not be told, should not be judged, but only listened to.
Why did I change my mind? Because my mission is to make an extra listener know American independent music and I couldn’t help but make my own little advertising for such a beautiful, exciting, exciting and poetic album.
I don’t exaggerate friends. This new album by the now legendary young singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin is a monumental work with no weaknesses, a record for connoisseurs, but also for people who get excited with the true stories and in which you can mirror, even though you did not live in West Virginia at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains.
I’ve been following this man since he made the first sound of his 2020 debut Seneca (https://www.trexroads.com/seneca-charles-wesley-godwin-2019-english/) and I’ve seen his musical and human evolution take him to the next level. A very high level in a few years with the second album How Mighty Fall of 2021 (https://www.trexroads.com/how-the-mighty-fall-charles-wesley-godwin-2021-english/).
His name with this second effort had become synonymous with quality songwriting and his fame has become greater and greater.
An absolutely deserved fame that led him to share the stage with many great artists, but especially with the great Zach Bryan, with whom he co-wrote some songs and with whom he debuted as opener in the legendary concert at the Red Rocks Arena of Morrison, Colorado, concert then immortalized in the record of the same Bryan “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster”.
A growth, even of songwriting, so sudden often brings consequences and the consequence on Godwin was the famous writer’s block: an interruption of inspiration and desire (or even time) to write new music.
Charles says that the success led to a psychological pressure that he had never tried and the signing with a label increased this feeling of inadequacy because he was not used to having deadlines.
Probably the birth of the second son in 2022 and a new serenity helped to remove this block that had gripped him and the inspiration has returned to kissing one of the most talented and poetic songwriters that American music has produced in recent years.
An inspiration that has not left him since then since in addition to the 19 songs of this sumptuous work of art that is Family Ties, ours has already been portrayed in the recording studio with other ideas to put on tape.
If in the first two albums Charles had introduced us with real and personal stories to the life and experiences of West Virginia, in this new album he makes a concept album about his family life and its importance, always immersed in the state of the miners, but in a deeper way.
A sort of celebration of stability, of the family and all that the past represents, in a modern world that instead tries to erase the world before without caring about the damage of not having a past as a reference.
The production, as in the previous ones, is entrusted to a small genius of the production: Al Torrence, which now has a perfect symbiosis with Godwin creating a sound now epic, now folk narrative, now rock flavor.
The band behind, the Allegheny High, are pure talent at the service of a great artist who is now definitely out of the shadow that probably projected on him Zach Bryan and gives us one of the most beautiful records of recent years.
It’s hard to tell you about some songs, it’s a record that you enjoy one second after another.
For example, the title track is exciting in its light banjo and violin sound under the Seneca skies.
Godwin’s voice is exciting, powerful, evocative and the song has something melancholy and epic.
It could not miss a song about the life of the miners and in Miner Imperfections Charles talks about it as a son tells us about the mistakes of the forgiving fathers, hoping that his children will do the same with him. A ballad that moves, to listen and listen to.
Then there is the almost cinematic beauty of The Flood: it does not look like any of its inspirers, now it is him who inspires others and live is now a certainty that inflames souls in his concerts.
Another Leaf is the song I would choose if I was forced to choose one (but after a long reflection): pressing, compelling, poetic. The violin, the beating drums, and then the song transforms.
First lights and then shadows, but with the wonderful voice of Charles Wesley Godwin to take us to the other side: a masterpiece. One of the most beautiful songs of this now very long (musically speaking) 2023. Quote for the finale that live will be all fireworks and ran up and down the stage.
I cannot fail to mention the second that I would choose (if I had to choose) and that is the fantastic Cue Country Roads: a dedication felt, exciting, rock, passionate about life in the lands dominated by the Appalachian Mountains.
The voice, the guitars intertwined with violins: another round another masterpiece.
The cover of John Denver, Take Me Home, Country Roads (one of the most famous country songs also in our latitudes), is not just a cover: Charles sings it and plays it as his own.
A hymn of his land more than a song, a tribute not only to the author, but to the whole West Virginia that in the choirs takes on an even more intense and emotional character. Fantastic. A perfect circle closure.
A wonderful songwriter who no longer needs presentations for those who love quality American music. A confirmation that puts it at the level of older people and I talk about people like Springsteen, Dylan and Petty.
A poet, a talented musician, a voice that is a gift from Heaven at the service of epic, moving and never banal songs that touch the most beautiful territories of modern American music from country, blues, rock and folk.
A record that will remain in books on the history of American music and that will become, I’m sure, the anthem of the boys of his college football team of the heart: the West Virginia Mountaineers of the University of West Virginia: as a child he dreamed of a career in the NFL, but God has given him another gift and he is making good use of it, one record after another, one concert after another, one fan conquered after another.
Good listening,
Claudio “Trex” Trezzani by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(in Ticino Notizie web site you can find original italian version of this article)
