THE WOMACK SISTERS, THE WOMACK SISTERS

There probably aren't many bands that can claim Sam Cooke as their grandfather, Bobby Womack as their uncle, and Womack & Womack as their parents. But for sisters BG, Zeimani, and Kucha Womack, that is their very cool family history. Their father, Cecil Womack, performed alongside his brother Bobby in The Valentinos before becoming a successful songwriter and forming Womack & Womack with their mother, Linda, the daughter of Sam Cooke.

And from an early age, the sisters’ parents involved them in their musical lives and careers. They traveled with them, went to studio sessions, soundchecks, meetings, interviews, and performances, and eventually began singing with them. Zeimani appeared as a baby on the cover of Womack & Womack's Conscience, and the sisters made their recording debut alongside their siblings on 1993's Transformation to the House of Zekkariyas. As they got older, BG, Zeimani, and Kucha decided to pursue music themselves. 

After moving to Los Angeles, the sisters spent years trying to build a career, running a cleaning business and driving for Uber while also singing, writing, and arranging for other artists. Along the way, people in the industry encouraged them toward pop and contemporary R&B, telling them that the soul music they wanted to make wasn't what was happening. But the sisters stuck with it, independently releasing music, including their Legacy EP in 2022, before connecting with Daptone Records and Gabriel “Bosco” Mann, who understood what they wanted to do.

Now the sisters have released their self titled debut album. An album that definitely captures the soul music they grew up with, along with the sisters' love for artists like Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, The Supremes, The O'Jays, and The Ronettes. It also captures the spatial quality of vintage soul recordings made decades earlier. When they went into the studio, they wanted what BG calls “raw, real sounds.” Much of the album was recorded with the musicians together in the same room, with very little digital intervention and the music going to tape. The resulting recordings sound timeless, with a warmth and fullness to the arrangements, and the sisters' voices and harmonies captured beautifully.

Their songs on the album are about the sisters' lives. The years leading up to the record included the deaths of their father and uncle, and Zeimani's husband. They write about love, heartbreak, grief, abandonment, work, and perseverance. “Chauffeur” grew out of their years driving Uber and private clients, while “My Sisters and Me” closes the album by celebrating the relationship that has held the three of them together through everything they've experienced.

I'm glad to be seeing such a great resurgence of retro soul and R&B. Artists like Jalen Ngonda and Thee Sacred Souls have been high on my list of late, and now I can add The Womack Sisters to it. It took them a long time to get here, but boy, have they arrived in style. The Womack Sisters is a wonderful album that celebrates their journey, their family, and the music that has been at the center of it all.