BGS and MerleFest are so excited to once again partner to bring you exclusive clips and sessions captured on site during the incredible 2026 MerleFest event in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Last month, we launched our off-season collaboration with the iconic, long-running bluegrass and roots music festival sharing two of the most memorable performances from this year’s edition of the MerleFest Late Night Jam with the Grand Ole Opry hosted by Old Crow Medicine Show. You can catch up now and watch OCMS with Maggie Rose here.
For our second installment in the series, we step away from the rowdy and raucous Late Night Jam for a more traditional session and set from none other than Charles Wesley Godwin. It was the beloved West Virginian alt-country and Americana singer-songwriter’s first appearance at MerleFest after spending a lifetime being a fan of the event. As he shared on social media the weekend of his performance, “Did it for Doc! Getting the invite to play [MerleFest] was an incredible honor. This has been a festival I’d wanted to be a part of since my college days singing bluegrass. Thank y’all for having us!”
On a sunny afternoon during the festival, our videographer friends at I Know We Should and a small, lucky audience of onlookers and fans gathered to hear Godwin and his band perform three songs for their MerleFest Session. The crowd claps enthusiastically as director Brad Wagner welcomes the group, who begin their performance with “Place I Know,” giving what was at the time an early preview from Godwin’s brand new album, Christian Name, which arrived on July 23. In a bluegrassy acoustic setup with guitars, mandolin, upright bass, drums, and keys circled up around a condenser microphone, they demonstrate the genre melting pot from which Godwin draws all of his sonic inspiration. The brand new, as yet unreleased song dripping with nostalgia and longing, and ultimately landing somewhere between millennial folk, country, Americana, and bluegrass. Punctuated with a tasty twin flatpicking solo, “Place I Know” vibrates with energy – and will make an excellent road trip song when it drops later this month.
The small-but-mighty audience roars, and Wagner and Godwin chat about the festival a bit before the group begins “Hallelujah High,” another new track from the upcoming LP. This one is a story song, painting an indelible picture of faith, family, and rural life. It’s a lovely bookend to “Place I Know,” drawing from similar nostalgia but feeling more laid back, focused on imagery and the feelings his tableaus can evoke. Godwin is known for this illustrative writing style, and for the strong influences felt from his West Virginia upbringing and his years crisscrossing the country on tour, performing in states like North Carolina and at festivals like MerleFest.
For their final selection, Godwin and the band return to a fan favorite from his 2025 release, Lonely Mountain Town, “She Don’t Love Me Anymore.” As Charles points out in his introduction, this live session performance is a bit different from the studio recording – “we picked up the tempo a little bit and made it bluegrass.” It’s a perfect treatment for the context, and the song shines in its MerleFest trappings. What’s more bluegrass than lost love and loneliness? The mandolin is picked back up as the band kicks into the fast clip of the song, Godwin singing, “Tear me up ’til I’m in pieces/ Burn me down ’til I’m ashes on the ground/ I’d do anything to feel the way I did before/ The day she confessed she don’t love me anymore…”
The crowd cheers again, as we and they appreciate our luck at getting to be a “fly on the wall” for these special MerleFest Session performances captured live at the festival in April 2026. Make sure to check out Charles Wesley Godwin’s Christian Name, out now, and make plans to attend MerleFest 2027.
Video Credits: I Know We Should, Brad Wagner and Juan Soria.
This content brought to you in partnership with MerleFest. Experience music and more at MerleFest.org.
