What do George Strait, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Steve Wariner, Johnny Paycheck, Clint Black and Garth Brooks all have in common?  Well, besides being country music superstars they all followed artist/singer/musician Britt Godwin on stage.  Godwin has over 32 years experience of singing, playing and song writing.  That’s not bad considering he’s only 37 years old!

By age five Britt was performing at church and school functions.  Britt’s early love of honky-tonk music was unmistakable.  His kindergarten teacher once called his mother to ask her where he was learning to sing “beer-drinking” songs.  He formed his own band, The Concrete Cowboys at age ten.  “My parents always supported me 1000% from the age of ten with my first band, they took me to every show, and anywhere I could sing!”, says Britt.  “Mom introduced me to the country end of things and we went to all kinds of concerts as I was growing up, Charlie Rich, Waylon, Willie, Hank, Jr., etc. and there was always music playing in the house.”

Britt played in Charlie Pruitt’s very first Country Music Show when he was 12.  When he was 16 his band opened for Tom T. Hall at the Julie Rogers Theatre in Beaumont, Texas.  At age 16 he joined Pruitt’s Country Music Show at the Jefferson Theatre.  There he spent four and half years as the lead guitarist and male lead vocalist.  Britt recorded his first single, George Jones, Jack Daniels And Me when he turned 17.  He graduated from Bridge City High School in 1986. 

Godwin had more experience performing by age 20 than many entertainers achieve in a lifetime.  And that was just the beginning!  In 1988 he joined a regional powerhouse country act, Southern Rein, and became the house band at the old Longhorn Club in Orange, Texas.  Britt’s talent helped fuel the country music explosion in southeast Texas in the early 1990’s. 

Beaumont and Port Arthur have always had a rich musical heritage.  Members of ZZ Top, Janis Joplin, Johnny & Edgar Winter, George Jones and many others have called southeast Texas their home at one time or another.  The 1990 release of Mark Chesnutt’s Too Cold At Home CD marked a new beginning for the southeast Texas country music scene.  Chesnutt, who headlined at Cutter’s was followed by his friend Tracy Byrd as the house band.  Britt, Mark Nesler, Cary Stone and others played in Tracy’s band, The Only Way To Fly.  Britt stayed on tour with Tracy for ten years as his lead guitarist and backup vocalist. 

Britt was able to realize a lifelong dream of playing for sold-out crowds from coast to coast.  He played in venues that he’d read about and watched on television.  From the Ryman Auditorium and today’s Grand Ole Opry in Nashville to the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa (Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Beaumont native J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson’s last show before their tragic plane crash in 1959). 

Many know Britt as the hardcore honky-tonker, but he’s also recognized in other circles as an accomplished jazz and swing singer in the vein of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr.  Britt explains his father’s influence on his music, “Dad was more into the Big Band stuff.”  “The first Frank Sinatra record I ever heard was Strangers In The Night.  Britt has been a featured Lamarissimo artist, covering Sinatra songs to a packed Julie Rogers Theatre audience.  A perfectionist, Britt has completed an ambitious project of his own.  He has just released a swing standard CD entitled Vegas Style that includes a line-up of swing classics. 

But Britt hasn’t forgotten his first love.  He’ll be recording a country CD in that will be comprised of original songs and time-honored country and western favorites.  “My Dad also loved Marty Robbins”.  “I can remember being about five or six hearing Don’t Worry”.  Britt's parents musical influence is undeniable.  “If I record something it always has to pass their approval and it’s one I truly value”, he noted.  “Simply said, they are the backbone behind me and all I do”.

Britt and his wife Kristen currently reside in Bridge City, Texas.  You can watch Britt and former Byrd bandmadte Bubba Moore perform in the Beaumont area and Britt is also featured in Jerry Nichols & Texas Thunder.