It’s no stretch to say that Charles Wesley Godwin and Zach Bryan are quickly becoming one of the best duos in country music. From frequently touring to collaborating on the track, Jamie, Bryan and Godwin are making a name for themselves as stellar collaborators both in the studio and on the road.
In an exclusive interview with Country Chord, Godwin discussed how his relationship began with Bryan initially, saying, “It started from Zach reaching out on social media. [He] just messaged me one day and asked if I wanted to do ‘The Belting Bronco‘ when he was still living up in Port Townsend, Washington State. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll be in Seattle next month.’ This is August of 2021. And he’s like, ‘All right, sounds great.’ And we made plans to do that video and meet up that day.”
However, due to Bryan’s involvement in the Navy at the time, it fell through. The two would eventually come together to make the episode of The Belting Bronco in Dec. 2022.
As for touring, Godwin asked Bryan if he and his band could accompany him for a show in the fall of 2021, and the rest was history, “When he went on tour that fall, I asked if I could come out and open a show and the first one we opened was Raleigh, North Carolina in October. We did a good job, and he just added us on the rest of the tour. Ever since then, just me and him get along great. Our guys get along great, so it’s just an enjoyable time on the road together.”
Later in the interview, Godwin opened up about how Jamie came to be, saying, “It was January 2022. Zach FaceTimed me one day and had the first verse done with the chords and stuff. And [he] was like, ‘What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘Man, that sounds like it could be a great song.’ He’s like ‘Do you wanna write it with me?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ So over the next handful of months, we were kind of working on stuff, shooting it back and forth.”
As the months progressed, the plan switched a bit for the pair. Bryan eventually took over completely on writing. Godwin notes, “Then in June, I think, he reached out to me, he was like, ‘Hey man, you know what? I’m just gonna take it from here.’ He had an idea that he wanted to see through to the end, and by the end of that month, he had the whole song done.”
Finally, it was time to record the track. Godwin recalls how it was an extremely quick, organic process once he arrived at the studio, “He asked me to come up to Philly one day and record it. So I just rolled in and hadn’t heard the whole thing finished yet. Within 30 minutes of parking my car outside of the studio, we had it done. I went up there. Elijah wrote the lyrics down on a piece of paper, and I think I had it on a music stand in front of me. And was reading it for the first time with the mic’s hot, you know? It was a pretty organic, fast thing that happened, but it was fun to do it that way.”
Listen to Jamie below and click on the Instagram post above to watch part of the interview.