If you’ve never seen the West Virginia native perform, Charles Wesley Godwin puts on an high-energy show… and sometimes that spells trouble when he plays out in the heat.
CWG announced earlier today that his fourth studio album, Christian Name, is set to come out on July 24. It’ll be his follow up to the stellar Family Ties project that he released in 2023, and will add to his already impressive catalogue that got started with Seneca in 2019 and How the Mighty Fall in 2021.
With the new album on the way, Godwin will likely be doing some more media appearances to help promote his new music. He recently joined Katie & Company, and while he did touch on his forthcoming album, one story that he told at the very beginning of the interview was quite interesting.
Charles Wesley Godwin and the host of the podcast apparently last crossed paths at the Windy City Smokeout, which is a country music and barbecue festival that takes place every year in Chicago, Illinois. When the pair got to talking about last year’s show, all the country singer remembered about the event was how unbearably hot it was:
“That was a hot day. I’ll always remember that as a very, very hot day. There were bodies that would just get passed up, and slowly be brought up by security. They’d take them over to a tent and put ice water on their neck and stuff to try and revive them. I almost went down.”
Granted, it is Chicago in the middle of July. That’s about as hot and humid as it gets in the Windy City.
Godwin went on to describe the site of the festival as out on the asphalt with not much shade at all (not exactly a glowing review). And he shared that, while he stood up on stage and watched a number of fans pass out from the heat, he was very close to joining them, and had to hang onto the mic stand at one point to stabilize himself:
“I remember holding onto the mic stand… there’s been two instances where this has happened. The Windy City Smokeout and I did a festival in Austin, Texas, two years ago that was in July at the F1 track. It was same type of weather. I almost went down (and got to the point) where my vision went narrow.
I sweat a lot when I’m performing, and put a lot of energy into it. It’s a really physical thing. At the Windy City Smokeout last year, I think there was a point where I grabbed onto the mic stand just to make sure I knew what was up as my vision started to narrow.”
Some scary stuff.
If you’ve seen a Charles Wesley Godwin show, it makes sense. He’s often jumping around and swinging his head as he feeds off the energy of the crowd. It makes for one heck of a show… but maybe a show that is best suited indoors. At the very least, it sounds like CWG has to be careful playing future, summertime festivals.
You can hear him talk more about his close calls in the interview below:
Katie & Company – Charles Wesley Godwin
