Taking his Lightfoot cover to the Stagecoach stage.
In early April, Charles Wesley Godwin tipped his hat to the great Gordon Lightfoot, covering his 1974 hit “Sundown.” While the song was only available for streaming on Amazon Music, Godwin is blessing us now with a live video performance of the cover from Stagecoach.
While it’s still not on Apple Music or Spotify, I will gladly open up my YouTube channel to get my fix on this song, and this stellar liver version rivals the studio cut. If you are familiar with Godwin, you know that this song is often in his setlist, and he loves shining light on Lightfoot’s prolific songwriting.
He noted when his cover with Amazon Music came out:
“I believe Gordon to have been one of the greatest songwriters of our time and felt this opportunity with Amazon Music was perfect to shine a light on one of his most popular songs a little over 50 years after its original release date.
Hopefully, through this version that me and the guys recorded, a new generation of music listeners can be introduced to Gordon’s music and become fans of his themselves.”
This performance shows why Godwin is one of the best in the business.
The 1974 hit sounds rather lighthearted, but the story that inspired the lyrics is rather heavy. At the time, Lightfoot was dating Cathy Smith, and the lyrics detail Lightfoot being at home wondering if she was faithful to him while on the road. Ironically, the two got together through an affair. I guess the saying “once a cheater, always a cheater” is valid here.
While Cathy has a wild (perhaps sad?) story of her own, (you can read more on that here), the lyrics detail that she was not exactly an upstanding character to begin with, and Lightfoot wrote the song as a man blinded by love.
“I can see her lying back in her satin dress
In a room where you do what you don’t confess
Sundown, you better take care
If I find you been creeping ’round my back stairs…”
While you’re here, fire up the original version.
