Come a long way since then.
Charles Wesley Godwin just dropped the best album of the year with his third project, Family Ties, his first album since signing a record deal with Big Loud Records.
Since bursting onto the scene with his debut album Seneca in 2019 and following it up with the best album of 2021 in How the Mighty Fall, Charles has hit the road with Zach Bryan and started selling out his own tour stops as fans realize just what a special artist he really is.
In fact, Charles has even sold out two nights at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville this December for what’s sure to be a milestone moment for the West Virginia native.
But before he was packing out his own venues, Charles actually got his start playing in Estonia while studying abroad – and his first paid gig turned out to be quite the memorable one.
During a chat with Whiskey Riff, CWG told the story of how he ended up playing a lingerie fashion show in Estonia, a gig that he said changed his life.
While in Estonia, Charles had been playing guitar and making music with his friends, but had never played for the public or had a paid show. But one night while he was out with his friends, one of them brought his guitar and encouraged Charles to get on stage:
“After the show ended they didn’t turn the sound off, and [my friend] runs up on the stage and is like, ‘Charlie, come play a song! Come play a song!’
And I’m kinda waiting for security to like, maybe get him off the stage. I didn’t want to do that. I never had any intentions of playing for people at that point.”
But his friend was determined, and ended up getting the entire venue to start cheering for Charles to hop up on stage – so he decided to just go with it:
“It got so bad where I was like, ‘Well, it’s gonna be worse if I wuss out and don’t do it.’
So I went up and played a song and made it through.”
Well apparently that song impressed the audience, because the following week Charles got a Facebook message from a fashion designer asking him to play for a fashion show as the models were walking out.
The gig paid 150 euro for a 20 minute performance, so of course Charles couldn’t really turn it down.
But when he got to the show, it wasn’t exactly what he had expected:
“I got like four cover songs ready to go, five cover songs, and head to this show. It’s in this courtyard of this cafe there in Tartu.
And get all set up – and it’s a lingerie fashion show.”
And as it turns out, it was that gig that convinced Charles that making music was what he wanted to do with his career:
“It changed my life during that 20 minutes…
I was like, this is the easiest work I’ve ever done in my life, this is incredible. I’ve only ever been working for minimum wage or a lawn business that I had growing up at that point.
So I was like, I’m gonna keep doing this. So I started playing gigs. And then when I went back to West Virginia I started singing bluegrass music and playing in bars.
And then that just kinda grew into like, this is what I was born to do.”
Although he admits that it didn’t turn out to be as easy as playing 20 minute shows for lingerie models. But it was that experience that inspired his song, “Peaked,” which he recorded with his former band Union Sound Treaty:
“It kinda gave me a false sense of what gigs would be like with that first one. So I always say, I peaked.
Best show I’ll ever get to play.”
Well it turns out there’s also video of that gig on YouTube.
I see why Charles says that he peaked.
@whiskeyriff♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
