Charles Wesley Godwin is Great, But Poor Decision, Annoying Crowd Hurt Little Rock Performance

by Julian Spivey

Julian Spivey Photo

Charles Wesley Godwin returned to The Hall in Little Rock, Ark., on Friday, April 10, for his first headlining show of 2026 after taking the last few months off.

When I saw him at The Hall in 2024, it was an electric night of music with one of the best club shows I’d seen from an act in a while, with him and his band, The Allegheny High, on absolute fire that evening.
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Friday night’s show didn’t quite have the same feeling – partially due to a decision on Godwin’s part and partially due to the crowd within the venue.

Don’t get me wrong, there were still magical moments throughout the set, as Godwin’s deeply personal songs hit on themes and feelings that are universal, and he has a bunch of stuff in his repertoire that should already be considered his greatest hits, despite only having three albums under his belt.

When he was performing stuff the crowd knew and loved like “Strong” and “Jesse,” off his sophomore album How the Mighty Fall (2021) or “Another Leaf,” “Miner Imperfections” and “The Flood,” off his most recent release Family Ties (2023) he had the whole room eating out of the palm of his hand.

Before Friday’s show, I saw a post from Godwin on his Facebook page saying there would be “lots of new music in the set.” Typically, if an artist breaks out new songs in front of a live audience, it’ll be like two or three songs, but Godwin performed seven songs that, by my account, are previously unreleased.
From what I can tell, these songs will be fantastic when his fourth studio album is released. Undoubtedly, he must have one coming out sometime soon with this much new material. However, a live club show on a Friday night, when, unfortunately, too many of the audience members would rather drink and chatter than listen to new stuff, makes it hard to make out exactly what the singer is saying. So, I’m sure when that album is released, I’ll love new songs like “Try Again,” “Better That Way,” “Hey There Son” and “I Caught the Sunrise,” but on Friday night, I was struggling to comprehend.

Another thing I can’t comprehend is how these artists, who are pouring their heart and soul on stage, feel when folks in the audience are acting a fool, doing just about anything but listening to the music. It’s a real downer for those of us who attend shows for the music. If you want to drink, chat and party, there are plenty of other (and cheaper) places you can do this. It feels like ticket prices aren’t the only thing rising for live music; so are poorly behaved concertgoers.

When Godwin and the Allegheny High were at their absolute best, and the crowd was most into the show, were during those greatest hits of his I mentioned earlier: “All Again,” “Family Ties” and a stirring solo acoustic performance of “Seneca Creek,” a highlight from his 2019 debut Seneca, which ended the main set.

This energy ran through to the encore, which began with “Cue Country Roads,” which had been his show opener the last time I’d seen him, and into “Hardwood Floors,” which may be his biggest song overall with his fan base and finishing with a terrific cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which showed off his pride of being a son of West Virginia.

Jason Scott and the High Heat opened the show on Friday night, and things started out pretty well with some fun stuff like “If We Make It Til the Mornin’” and “High Country,” before throwing some real stinkers out toward the end of their set like “Cowboy Cold Beer” and others I don’t know the name of. The group feels like it could do some good work if they set their mind to it.

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