A whole year of Family Ties.
Charles Wesley Godwin changed the game of country music last year when he gave fans his third record, Family Ties. To say that Family Ties is face-meltingly good is an understatement.
Over the last year, Family Ties has become more than just a record but a cultural phenomenon. From blowing up CWG’s career, having it be his first album released signed to a major label (and thankfully, they let him release it given it was cut before he was signed), giving fans an inside peek into the making of the record, the intimate Live From Echo Mountain recordings, and the cinematic masterpieces of the “Family Ties Trilogy” bringing the lyrics to life; Family Ties put CWG on a rollercoaster and has kept him on it.
“It’s been 1 year today since ‘Family Ties’ was released. That album was a journey, unlike any other, from pen to paper all the way until its release day.
It’s been an incredible ride this past year, seeing how much it’s connected with y’all around the country. And to that point, thank y’all so much for listening. Cheers to ‘Family Ties!'”
The West Virginia native gave us his most personal project while also delivering a masterclass on songwriting. This record, from top to bottom, tells the story of his life and those who have influenced it and continue to influence it.
“I like them to be coherent and have a point to them, and a message, a theme. I don’t want them to just be 10 separate songs that have nothing to do with each other just thrown into a box… I always want them to have a common thread throughout the songs…
I wrote a whole album about family. It’s real personal to me. I’m singing specifically to my kids and my family and everybody, and there’s nobody quite doing that – for better or worse.”
Ironically, when chatting with Godwin last year before the album’s release, he told Whiskey Riff that Family Ties was born after he had been in a massive songwriting rut.
“I was in a rut for like half a year in 2021 going into 2022. I had just tons of stress on me in 2021. My business almost went under, going out on the road with my giant band and making very little money, trying to make it until ‘How the Mighty Fall’ came out, and it almost didn’t work.
I was losing sleep that whole year with all the stress, so I hardly wrote a word through all that. Then ‘How the Mighty Fall’ comes out and all these labels start coming into the picture. And it was this weird attitude of like, ‘Let me see what you have now.’
And I was like, ‘Well I just released an album. I got two albums, do you like those?’
And they wanted to cherry pick and see what I had then. So I have all these people depending on me to make a living, they have families, and there’s these folks wanting to cherry pick what I’m creating, I’ve been in this rut, and it was this whole new mix of variables that I’d never dealt with.
So, I had three months off before my daughter was about to be born and after she was born. So, I got back home, was actually able to stop and get some rest, started going down into the office and working every morning. And I kinda went back into what I’ve always done, just started trying to write stories and things like that that interest me…and this time it was just garbage.”
Eventually, he was sitting with his father-in-law one day, and their conversation pulled him out of the creative slump.
“He just kinda reminded me of why I’m even here in the first place. Here to write songs. This is what I do.
That’s what got me to the dance. It’s what I love. It’s what made me happy, and it’s the whole reason I started playing music, because I love writing songs and it makes me feel good and it’s my therapy.
And it just so happens that I’m able to make a living because of that. But that’s not the reason I do it. It’s not about that.
So he just told me to get back to the basics and just write songs. It’s what you do; it’s what you’re put onto this earth to do. And that’s all I needed to hear.
I went down the next morning and wrote ‘Two Weeks Gone,’ which is a song on the album, and after that one I was like, ‘Alright, I’m just going to write about my family this year. It’s what I feel like doing. I feel like I need to do this.’
And I had the best writing year of my life.”
The best songwriting year of his life became one of the best career years after the release of Family Ties. The songwriting masterclass that CWG gives throughout this project is unparalleled compared to anything else released in 2023. Because of this, it was an easy winner when naming the 2023 Whiskey Riff’s Album of the Year.
Charles Wesley Godwin changed the game with this record. Cheers to many more top-to-bottom listens of Family Ties.
“Family Ties”
“All Again”
“Dance in Rain”
