Country singer-songwriter Charles Wesley Godwin has released his new album, "Christian Name," on 24 July via Big Loud Records, an intensely personal project shaped by the stillbirth of his and his wife's third child, a son named Samuel, in August 2024. Unlike his previous albums, which he largely wrote alone, Godwin brought in several prominent Nashville songwriters to help him process the loss while keeping the record from becoming overwhelmingly bleak, saying the collaboration gave the album "more hope" than a solo effort would have.

Key collaborators include Travis Meadows, Lori McKenna, Liz Rose and Stephen Wilson Jr, with Meadows co-writing the track "Try Again" about facing life with faith after sorrow. The song "Hey There, Son," begun in 2019 around the birth of Godwin's first son Gabriel and finished with McKenna in 2024, features a guest vocal from singer-songwriter Wyatt Flores, 25, lending it an intergenerational feel. The album opens with a sermon clip from coal miner and preacher Dave Stacy discussing the Book of Job, a passage that resonated with Godwin during his grief, tracked down via a YouTube video after some effort to secure permission.