Charles Wesley Godwin on Weathering Tragedy and Hope on New Album ‘Christian Name’: ‘I’m Just Different Than I Was Before

When Charles Wesley Godwin sat down to co-write the song “Try Again” with fellow songwriter Travis Meadows (“Riser,” “What We Ain’t Got”) in late 2024, Godwin calls that writing appointment “the best therapy session you could ever ask for.”

“Try Again” centers on finding the courage to face life open-heartedly and faith-forward following sorrow and is a key track on Godwin’s newly released album Christian Name , which came out Friday (July 24) on Big Loud Records.

That writing session also came not long after Godwin and his wife weathered tragedy when their third child, a son they named Samuel, was stillborn in August of that year. “I’m just different than I was before,” Godwin says of the nearly two years that have passed. “It’s made me much more empathetic as a person. Something like that really humbles you. I’m not saying I had my head in the clouds before, either, but something like that really brings you down to earth.”

On previous albums like 2023’s Family Ties and 2019’s Seneca , Godwin did the bulk of the songwriting, but with Christian Name , he called upon several of Nashville’s top-tier writers and artists, including Meadows, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose, and Stephen Wilson Jr.

“I think I needed help. I needed the help just to be upfront and honest,” Godwin says. “My co-writers for this album really helped me make a more balanced album, and I think it gave it some more hope. I think if I would’ve solo written this, it would’ve been a really hard listen and very depressing. I think it would’ve been a much harder listen.”

Godwin began writing another track on the album, “Hey There, Son,” in 2019 as he and his family welcomed their first son Gabriel, but completed the song with McKenna in July 2024. Fellow singer-songwriter Wyatt Flores, 25, offers a guest vocal that gives the song an intergenerational feel of a son and father talking to each other over a lifespan.

“He’s a friend of mine, and I think he started opening shows for me in 2023. Things have gone incredibly well for him and we play the same size rooms all around the country,” Godwin says of Flores. “He’s still very young and has a voice that has a bit more youthfulness to it than mine. I know it’s not the most traditional feature, but I thought it was about as impactful as a feature can be.”

The album opens with an audio snippet from a fiery sermon from coal miner and preacher Dave Stacy; Godwin’s producer Al Torrence discovered a video clip of Stacy on YouTube.

“Al knew that the [Biblical] book of Job had been something that was important to me these past couple of years, and he pulled that clip of Dave talking about the Book of Job for the intro,” Godwin says. “It was funny trying to get in touch with Dave to get permission to use it. He’s not online—that video was from someone who had videoed Dave, not his own YouTube channel or anything. I think the label was about to just send someone to Kentucky to see if we could find him, but the person who made the video was able to put us in touch with Dave and get his permission. It was just a really emotional and fiery way to enter the album and I think it turned out well.”

Instead of recording the album at a single studio, such as how he recorded Family Ties at North Carolina’s Echo Mountain Studios, he recorded the album in between tour dates in New York, Tennessee, California and other stops over the past year. The album’s sole outside cut is a rendition of Tony Lane’s “Gospel of the South,” first included on Lane’s 2017 self-titled album.

“I was listening to that Tony Lane record as my wife and I were going through everything and that was kind of like my comfort, listening to that album,” Godwin says. “Choosing to include that song on this record, I think it captures rural American culture in a really beautiful way.”

The album’s title track, which Godwin wrote in 2023, and album cover are a nod to Godwin’s grandfather, Charles Godwin, who served in World War II and later became a Methodist preacher. Though the title of the album is Christian Name , the project comes across less as didactic and more as a collection of songs that convey Godwin holding to faith in the midst of life-altering tragedy.

“I hope it makes everybody feel better,” he says of the new album. “No matter if somebody is a Christian or if they’re on the fence or if they don’t believe at all, I hope everybody takes something positive from this album. I hope that if other people are going through something in their life that’s causing them a lot of heartache, I would love it if this album somehow would make them feel better.”

The album also captures light-hearted moments, such as “God’s Been Good To Me,” written by Godwin with Aaron Raitiere, and “Hallelujah High,” a track written with Scooter Carusoe that details a cast of colorful characters that gather at a small-town church.

“It’s kind of a relief on the album,” he says of “Hallelujah High.” “I still live in Morgantown, West Virginia and grew up here and you run into all kinds of characters in West Virginia. That’s part of the beauty of a small community, is you have those unique characters that get to be part of your life. I think some people will be like, ‘Oh, I know somebody like that,’ or ‘There used to be someone at the store every week that reminded me of that Harley guy.’”

“Better That Way,” featuring two-time CMA entertainer of the year winner Luke Combs, marks Godwin’s first hit at country radio. The track has risen to No. 51 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart.

“We finished writing the song in July of last year and I had a feeling as soon as we had it finished,” he explains. “I texted [Luke] on a Thursday night and he got back to me Saturday morning, said he loved the song and would love to do it. It’s been huge having him on that. I’ve never had anything that quite fit the format. It’s just now starting to do its thing at radio and that’s been a fun, new experience. I’m 13 years ...

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