Womack Sisters
“I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye)”
Daptone Records
Getting vinyl sent to a radio station is rarer than ever. Nowadays record labels just send over digital files. There’s not a lot of love in that, is there? It’s like the art of making a mix cassette versus a playlist on a streaming service: It just doesn’t have the same feeling there.
So when an adorable little package from Brooklyn-based retro-soul label Daptone Records arrived in my mailbox, my heart picked up quite a bit.
This set of tracks are filled with love, throwback soul and a sense of humor, too. You could hear it without knowing what year it came out and think it's easily from the mid-1960s, a product from Motown or Stax – down to the format of its release!
It’s a 45 (another rarity these days) of deep blue vinyl with the Womack Sisters’ “I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye)” as the A side.
Yes, it’s that Womack family lineage, so there are some major expectations here. The trio of sisters (Kujcha, Zeimani and BG) are the daughters of songwriters and producer duo Cecil and Linda Womack (known as Womack & Womack). Their uncle is Bobby Womack. Their grandfather is Sam Cooke.
If you’re going to release music from that musical tree, you better come correct.
On their debut single for Daptone, “I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye),” they do.
From the opening pluck of a jangly guitar that sounds as forlorn as the track title suggests, to the vamped-up chorus where the drums bring the energy, the Womack Sisters tell the story of a painful break-up in which the right decision hurts so much, and there’s enough doubt in your heart that it could be the wrong decision, too.
There’s humor, too, with a wind-up of the refrain of the chorus: “I just don’t want you” repeated over and over -- before the truth comes out -- “... to say goodbye.”
It’s about the heart, but it sticks to the ribs. I’ve played this song at least four times on the air this week … and I’m extremely picky.
This is the eldest sister BG’s show, with her siblings singing back-up and building a bed for her heartbreak to lay itself bare. It’s the most direct attempt of the Womack Sisters to fully embrace a retro-soul sound (down to the label they signed with), although there’s always been this sock-hop sound running throughout some of their more straight-forward, contemporary R&B efforts.
As much as I love the A side, the B side is an even bigger star to me, the faster-paced “If You Want Me,” which will see a proper radio release to the wider public in October.
