Album Review – Charles Wesley Godwin’s “Lonely Mountain Town”

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photo: David McClister


#519 (Appalachian) and #570.15 (Singer/songwriter) on the Country DDS.

Charles Wesley Godwin’s gift is embedding the gravity of real life moments into epic-feeling songs that take you on vivid journeys. This is what has made him a strong favorite of many fans who happen to be stratified across the popular/independent country divide. And when Godwin performs with his band The Allegheny High, the passion is unparalleled. He’s relentless.

Some might wonder why Godwin has released a stripped-down 7-song EP in this moment as opposed to waiting until he’s got enough songs for a full album. These days, it’s common for performers to bisect their bigger album cycles with acoustic versions of current songs, or an EP of covers, or something similar. Labels and managers love to see ongoing activity, and worry if an artist doesn’t release anything, they might lose momentum.

It just happens to be that with Charles Wesley Godwin, even his more sedated B-side material is stellar, and superior to the top stuff from other performers. He doesn’t know how to cycle down and just produce filler. Everything in Godwin’s life is done full throttle. Even if the recording session forgoes full drums and is more acoustic than electric, Charles Wesley Goodwin is still going to squeeze every ounce of intensity into the songs that’s possible.

In fact, it’s the intimate nature of the approach to Lonely Mountain Town that brings the emotion of the songs to the surface, and centers the attention of the audience upon the story. Some of these seven songs capture the range of experiences with love, from the bleakness of the title track and the extra heartbreaking “She Don’t Love Me Anymore,” to the grateful moments and important lessons upon the perspective you take in life of “It’s The Little Things.”


As a fan of Charles Wesley Godwin, you don’t just get a musical entertainer. You also get a motivational speaker/self-help guru, though he’s subtle in how he weaves his affirmations into a track like “It’s The Little Things.” The songs of Lonely Mountain Town don’t always feel autobiographical. But when you get to “Then I’m Gone,” it’s clearly about Godwin’s life as a traveling musician, and how he’s also made a conscious decision to be purposeful in his home life.

As you would expect, Godwin writes most of the songs himself. But there is a special rendition of Jason Molina’s “Hammer Down” featuring Scott Avett of The Avett Brothers that Godwin picked up when they were both opening for Luke Combs. ERNEST co-wrote “Dead To Rights” that he also sings with Godwin, and both Wyatt Flores and Aaron Raitiere appear in the credits of “It’s Her Move.”

The way Godwin very slightly delays the delivery of “move” in the chorus of “It’s Her Move,” and “gone” in the song “Then I’m Gone” is what makes these songs, and an excellent example of Godwin’s instincts as a musician, and how he’s able to get everything possible out of a lyric, and a performance.

Isn’t it just like Charles Wesley Godwin to take what is supposed to be a holdover or
hors d’oeuvre ahead of his next album, and deliver something that feels essential to his catalog. That is the experience of Lonely Mountain Town.

8.1/10

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