It’s a pleasure for me to come back and talk about one of the best songwriters I’ve discovered in my wandering the streets of independent American music. I already told you about him and his debut in 2019 ( here you can find the article :https://www.trexroads.com/seneca-charles-wesley-godwin-2019-english/ ) that Seneca who put it on the map and made it known throughout the United States. A record of a sparkling beauty that had once again proved, if ever needed, that the land dominated by the Appalachian Mountains was not only the homeland where country was born, but he keeps giving us amazing artists who deserve to be known. Charles Wesley Godwin is a young man but within himself he has the charisma and experience of the great, he does not sound a genre, he is not catalogible but he is a true artist who with always different styles and a poetic soul, he paints stories and he does it with a crystalline talent. If in his debut, the stories were all focused on his land and also autobiographical, that West Virginia so hard but so full of natural beauty, in his second album Godwin tells stories. He does it the way of the great storytellers of the past, a little Dylan, a little Bruce Springsteen, a little Hank Williams but also Cody Jinks. If you go to his website, there is his presentation and you find yourself the best definition you can make of his music : cinematic country folk. Here’s his music and his poetry, they’re like that, they’re little movies with vivid images that you can see before your eyes. The production is still entrusted to the expert ears of Al Torrence and honorable mention for the fantastic band that follows him. The sound is fantastic, the rhythm is a river in flood that overwhelms you but the sound of the violin by Ben Townsend, is pure magic that has the power to heal souls. The stories told are wonderful frescoes, the violin as I said immediately abducts you and starting Over Yonder you understand it immediately, beautiful and melancholy. Lyin’ Low is a ballad supported by a nice rhythm and the usual violin, a piece that almost touches the bluegrass, a story written by Godwin after having his first child, when all the priorities of a man change. When all the futility of life suddenly becomes useless and you wonder if you’re wasting your life on things that don’t really matter. The ability of a songwriter is to write stories from real-life details that may seem insignificant to normal people. Here with the poignant ballad Jesse, Charles succeeds very well, because the story of an unrequited love that comes , is inspired by a graffito found near an old bridge in West Virginia. To those who have not happened to see a written painted on a wall and wonder what the story is behind, here Godwin wrote us a song of a moving beauty. There are pieces that have been circulating for a while in the mind and fingers of Charles Wesley, like Needle Fall Down, a piece that comes from the days when he played with his first band. A song that has a taste of delta blues, the slide, thoughts on the difficulties of life and his voice. Ah his voice friends! So intense and full, so evocative. An all-round artist, who deserves to be among the great, on the other hand, his land never gives birth to trivial artists. The next trio of songs is the pinnacle of a gorgeous record : Strong has a fast rhythm, a bit like life pursued by debts, the violin is magical but the secret of the song is the use of the instruments in the manner of the Springsteen first way, The one who told us about losing lives with a big band behind us without trying to be a preacher. Here the song looks like a rock immersed in the country of West Virginia, epic and exciting. Bones is the second of this trio and it’s a wonderful western song, one that could give birth to an epic film on the frontier. A story of regrets and memories, thoughts on the choices that affect our lives. Another song that puts the shivers so much enters the soul and almost seems to hear the dust of the desert of the old west, then comes a guitar solo that cuts the atmosphere and makes this song almost perfect. This man’s songwriting ability is of a higher stature. No doubt. Then comes the jewel of the record, Gas Well, a song that in almost 5 minutes touches many genres with an epicity as a great artist, you go from a country blues flavor from the 70s to country almost bluegrass, a song in which you tell a story that can be a movie, That’s the Springsteen skill I’ve already mentioned. Then the harmonica, the trumpet in Ennio Morricone style, the taste of western, missing the noise of a shooting and the movie is good and ready. A piece that in the end still changes turning towards country rock, leaving the impression that Charles Wesley Godwin is an artist that we will hear with pleasure often in these years. The jewels are certainly not finished, Cranes of Potter is a ballad of a resounding beauty, a story that comes from another idea born by chance. Godwin recounts that on his way to the recording studio one day he was impressed by many construction cranes near the Ohio River and had asked the others for information. They were building a new natural gas plant and while they were digging they had found human bones 150 years ago in a shallow pit. The imagination of a great artist did the rest. Blood Feud is rock and roll! You just rock and roll, funny and played with skill, watered in country sounds, violin on shields and bar fights. This is the ability, a crossover between various genres without ever looking forced or out of place. I must say that even as a street rocker, Godwin is credible, his voice lends itself and his band is at ease. The title track ends in a sublime way this wonderful film that is this album, a melancholy ballad, supported by the sound of a great band. A story about the cruel power of the passing of time, something that destroys the dreams of rich or poor without distinction. Once again Charles proves to be a narrator with few peers in independent and unrelated music business, an author who should have a place of honor among the best ever produced by American music in recent years. A work that is as beautiful as its cover, a record that has in the visual power of its stories its secret, supported by a voice that fits perfectly in this narrative and by a band with the best, forged by a thousand concerts around the States that will become more and more influential after this work. A mix of styles that hovers over country, rock and roll, blues and folk, between acoustic guitars, electric discharges, violin, banjo and piano, making it seem the most natural thing in the world and without ever getting tired. Charles Wesley Godwin can be with the greats of American folk music and so if you love that sound, that narrative talent, don’t let it get away, you will only benefit your ears and your soul.
Good listening,
Trex Willer by http://www.ticinonotizie.it
(you can find original italian article at this link : https://www.ticinonotizie.it/charles-wesley-godwin-how-the-mighty-fall-2021-by-trex-roads/ )
