FROM WVU

There is something ethereal about the moment you hear it.

A clean, simple-chord progression carrying a gentle, country twang.

“Almost heaven …”

Arms lift. Mountaineers-for-life beam with pride. Strangers link shoulders. Players sway in unison. In Morgantown, victory doesn’t end with a whistle. It ends with a homecoming.

For generations of Mountaineers, John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” has been more than a music anthem. It’s part of their identity, intertwined in their history — an undimmable, internal compass calling them home.

Now, West Virginia University has added a new chapter to that tradition, one penned by a son of Morgantown himself. Country music star Charles Wesley Godwin recently partnered with the University on a licensing agreement for his song “Cue Country Roads,” the 17th track on his 2023 album “Family Ties.” The track will be a central component of an upcoming University-led campaign honoring the postgame ritual and holds promise to become a Mountaineer soundtrack in its own right.

For Godwin, the deal is both personal and poetic. The stadiums and classrooms of WVU were once the backdrop of his own search for identity. Now, the music born of that journey will echo through the same hills and hollers he still calls home.

Godwin enrolled at WVU in 2010 as a finance major, a practical choice for a teenager who didn’t yet know his calling. Good grades earned him the Promise scholarship, and he was chasing the dream of wearing the old gold and blue as a linebacker on the football field.

“I tried out for the team 3 times and got cut all 3 times. I was too small and too slow,” he said with a chuckle, remembering attempts under both Bill Stewart and Dana Holgorsen.

What might have felt like rejection became redirection. In 2011, inspired after watching the Grammys and looking for a hobby to fill the hole football left behind, Godwin bought his first guitar. But it was the University’s study abroad program that gave him the courage to play it in public.

He landed in Tartu, Estonia, in 2013, where guitar practice in the evenings was anything but private since he shared space with 5 other roommates. His new friends encouraged him and made him realize that his chosen distraction could be more than a hobby. One night, friends dragged him onstage at a local club. Absolutely terrified, he played anyway — and loved it.

“That was the beginning of everything,” he said.

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Editor's Note: Photos from the story show Charles Godwin at WVU games interacting with fans.

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