Few songwriters capture the weight of life’s biggest moments quite like Charles Wesley Godwin, and his new release ‘Hey There Son (feat. Wyatt Flores)’ might be one of his most quietly devastating yet.
The song traces the arc of a father-son relationship from its very beginning, starting on the day a child is born, through the passing years of growth, guidance and shared experience. It’s a concept rooted in simplicity, but executed with a depth of feeling that reflects Godwin’s strength as a storyteller. Written alongside Lori McKenna, the track leans into that lived-in emotional honesty both writers are known for, capturing the small, defining moments that ultimately shape a life.
What makes ‘Hey There Son’ especially powerful is the way it evolves as it unfolds. The perspective begins with the father, offering wisdom, reassurance and presence across the different stages of his son’s life, but by the final verse, the narrative shifts. Wyatt Flores steps in to deliver a closing moment that flips the song on its head, as the son becomes the one speaking, reflecting back with gratitude and love in a poignant role reversal that brings the story full circle.
When we caught up with Godwin in Nashville last week, our conversation centred on exactly that: how the idea for the song came together, the emotional weight that McKenna brought to the writing process, and why it was so important for Flores to take that final verse and complete the story.
You’ve just filmed the video for ‘Hey There Son,' how does it feel to have everything coming together so quickly?
Yeah, it’s been great, man. I actually just got the music video done yesterday, and it’s coming out next Friday (today, June 12th) with the song, which is really exciting. A lot of times with stuff like that, it can take months before people see it, so to have that turnaround is pretty special. Honestly, one of the highlights of the week for me was just getting to watch that whole thing come together. I’m not much of an actor, I kind of just do my thing where I sing and let the camera cut around me, but we had actors playing different stages of life, which really helped bring the story to life in a way that I couldn’t do on my own. Wyatt was out there with me too, so it all ties in nicely with the release.
Let’s go back to the beginning. What was the initial inspiration behind ‘Hey There Son’?
I actually started that song right after my first son was born, in December of 2019. I wrote that first verse in the couple of weeks after he came into the world, and it was just me trying to process that moment: what it meant, how it felt, all of it. And I could’ve just kept going and finished the song right then, but I didn’t. Around that time, I was listening to a lot of Lori McKenna, and I remember thinking, “Man, this would be a great song to write with Lori McKenna.” Now, back then, there was no real reason for me to believe that I’d ever get the chance to sit in a room with her, but that thought stuck with me. So I just… stopped. I put the song down and waited.
And you really did wait for that moment to come around?
Yeah, I waited five years. And then I finally got that opportunity. It was the night after I played The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in New York, and Lori was up in Massachusetts. We ended up meeting halfway in Connecticut and spent a day writing together. We wrote two songs that day, but I had ‘Hey There Son’ ready to go, I’d been holding onto it all that time. So I brought it in, and we finished it together. It was one of those full-circle moments where something you hoped for years earlier actually comes to life.
The final verse, with Wyatt Flores, is such a powerful shift. Why was it important for that moment to come from a different voice?
That last verse was essential to the song. It couldn’t just be me singing the whole thing, it needed to be a different voice. From a storytelling standpoint, it’s the moment where the perspective changes from father to son, and for that to feel real, it had to sound like someone else. And not just anyone, it needed to be a younger voice, someone who could actually be the son of the character in the song. Wyatt was perfect for that.
It’s kind of an unusual feature, honestly. He’s not on a huge portion of the song in terms of time, but what he does is so important. The impact of that verse is everything: it’s the emotional payoff of the whole story. Without it, the song doesn’t land the same way.
Q: You’ve performed the song live both with Wyatt and on your own. How does that change the experience?
I’ve done both, and it works either way. When I sing it all the way through myself, it’s still a great song, I believe in it completely. But when you’re putting something down for an album, when you’re kind of chiseling it into stone, you want to get it exactly right. And for this song, that meant having Wyatt on that last verse.
Any time we’re in the same place, though, I’ll have him come out and do it with me. He joined me on the Riverfront Stage at CMA Fest, and he’s come out at Stagecoach before too. Those moments are really special because you get to see the song play out the way it was intended: with that full-circle handoff from one voice to another.
