Charlie Winton Reflects on Time, Memory and Second Acts With “Rising Tide”

Some artists arrive early and spend a lifetime trying to outgrow their first impression. Charlie Winton’s story moves differently. Before stepping fully into music as a recording artist, Winton spent decades shaping one of the most important corners of the publishing world, serving as a chairman and CEO while never letting go of the guitar, the songs or the quiet pull of the stage.

For more than 50 years, Winton kept writing and playing. His creative path did not stop because of business; in many ways, it deepened because of it. The same collaborative instincts that helped him build and lead in publishing would later inform his approach to making records, especially once retirement opened the door to what he calls his “second act.”

That second act has produced a thoughtful and increasingly expansive body of work. After connecting with Bay Area producer Scott Mathews, whose credits include work with major names across rock, pop and roots music, Winton began shaping a sound rooted in Americana, folk rock and the kind of weathered reflection that comes from lived experience. His upcoming album, Shadowland, follows 2024’s Eternal Light and looks back at the shadows of the past with a swampy, gravelly atmosphere suited for long drives, open roads and the kind of interior conversations that only time can produce.

The Weight and Wisdom of “Rising Tide”

Winton’s latest release, “Rising Tide,” carries the emotional gravity of a man taking inventory. Built around an arresting guitar riff, the song feels both grounded and searching, pulling from the lineage of poetic American troubadours while standing firmly in Winton’s own voice. It is a song about memory, acceptance, vulnerability, and the realization that time continues moving whether one is ready or not.

There is melancholy in the track, but not defeat. Winton sings from the vantage point of someone who has seen enough life to understand both regret and grace. The rising tide becomes more than an image; it becomes a reckoning. The past may press forward. The future may come into view. Still, there is “always time to get it right.”

His vocals sit rugged and weathered above steady acoustic movement, giving the song a lived-in sincerity. The result is folk rock that does not chase urgency. Instead, “Rising Tide” lets reflection breathe, trusting the listener to sit with its emotional questions.

A First Music Video With a Stripped-Back Spirit

“Rising Tide” also marks Winton’s first official music video, and the visual approach wisely avoids excess. Rather than overbuild the concept, the video leans into performance, emotion, and atmosphere. Winton and Mathews bring the song to life onscreen with understated intensity, while light, shadows and flashes of time reinforce the track’s central themes.

The recurring presence of the clock adds a quiet tension, reminding viewers that life keeps moving through joy, grief, stillness and change. The visual does not attempt to explain the song as much as it extends it. It invites the viewer inward, offering a meditative space where memory, mortality, and hope can coexist.

For Winton, the message is not simply about looking back. It is about staying awake to the present. The song urges listeners to “let the light in,” face what needs facing and hold tightly to the moments still within reach.

How did your early publishing career shape your music?

Our big idea when I started in publishing was creating a distribution company that would collaborate with our publishing clients instead of interacting more passively, which was the norm. Making music generally is all about a creative collaboration. In the middle of my publishing career, the early ’90s, I started editing books and did quite a bit of that over the next 25 years. In many ways, the author-editor creative relationship is very similar to the artist-producer creative relationship.

What kept you writing and playing music while working outside the industry?

Playing with friends and family was always a fun, creative outlet. Writing songs was something that I did solo and was rewarding when I could reach the point with a song where it was complete enough, usually a couple of verses and a chorus, that I could practice by playing my own tunes. Also great fun.

What made retirement the moment to focus fully on music?

I had made a decision that after 40 years in publishing, it was time to change it up and focus on my own creative endeavor, music, something I had been doing all along. I had a reasonably significant number of songs written at that point and plenty of time. I was also writing new songs. So I started playing my originals intentionally with several sets of friends who were into it. That created an informal workshop-type situation where I could work things out in a more real-time environment and get a real sense of the individual songs. I did that for a couple of years, and then I connected with Scott Mathews.

How did working with Scott Mathews shape your recent records?

It allowed me to work with someone who had a great deal of experience making records. He has worked with so many great musicians. Everything about making the first album flowed; it elevated my sense of my songs and my playing. Scott was also instrumental in consolidating my voice. My singing voice was always there, but he was very encouraging in terms of getting me to land right where it is.

What inspired your upcoming album Shadowland?

Once I started recording with Scott in 2019, I got into a rhythm of making an album every other year. I was writing new songs but also had a backlog of songs that I could draw on as well.

Once I have a few new songs, I get the itch to record them. After the third album, Eternal Light, was released in March 2024, I wrote “Shadowland,” “Rising Tide,” and “Never Say Never” in fairly quick succession, so it was time to regroup. The theme of “Shadowland,” the title track, is the dream state, the subconscious. At the time, I was sort of joking that the dream state can be so vivid and off the wall that it can sometimes seem more interesting than the conscious state.

What sparked the song “Rising Tide”?

In some ways, the theme of “Rising Tide” is kind of the other side of the coin from “Shadowland.” Looking around and taking stock and thinking about the journey and all the characters along the way.

How do you approach writing about time and memory?

Well, as I said, memory is kind of the flip side of Shadowland. Memory is sort of recollection, reflection, and reconciliation. Time obviously gives one the advantage of hindsight, and what you think happened gets more interpretive and maybe fuzzy. Time is always rushing along, and when you get to a certain point in life, there’s a tangible shift in how one wrestles with mortality. As the song goes, “The long goodbye is just in sight.”

What was it like filming your first music video?

It was great fun. My son Jack is a very accomplished editor in digital media, so having him on the team was a big advantage. He basically shot the whole thing in an afternoon. He edited the video and came up with the look.

Was the stripped-back video style intentional?

Yes. But as I said above, it was really Jack’s sense of how to interpret the song, and ultimately I wanted the video to capture the gritty element of the track.

What do you hope people take away from this music?

Well, first of all, enjoyment, and maybe they also take something away from the lyrical element.

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