Sam Cooke's granddaughters are bringing decades of family soul pedigree to Berkeley this weekend, performing at the historic Greek Theatre two days after releasing their self-titled debut album. The Womack Sisters — BG, Zeimani and Kucha Womack — take the stage Saturday for a sold-out show alongside Thee Sacred Souls and LA LOM, capping years of day jobs, background-vocal work and songwriting for other artists before finally releasing music under their own name.
The trio released their debut album on Daptone Records on Friday, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, a milestone that comes after the sisters spent years singing backup for their parents, Womack & Womack, and grew up onstage and in recording studios long before landing their own record deal. The Chronicle reports that the sisters also performed with their uncle, soul legend Bobby Womack, further deepening a family lineage that stretches back to Sam Cooke himself.
A Sound Rooted In Family History
The album is rooted in gospel, girl-group pop and classic R&B, per the Chronicle, a sound that reportedly ran counter to what some music executives wanted from the sisters, who were pushed to abandon their developing soul style. BG told the paper, “It's been a long journey,” reflecting on the years it took to reach this point. Zeimani added that the sisters wanted to continue what their family started, framing the album as both a personal breakthrough and a continuation of a musical bloodline.
That bloodline runs deep. The sisters' parents, Cecil Womack and Linda Cooke Womack, recorded together as Womack & Womack and scored international success with their 1988 single “Teardrops,” which climbed to No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart and sold millions of copies, according to Official Charts. The sisters made their first professional recording appearance as children on Womack & Womack's 1993 album “Transformation to the House of Zekkariyas” and later gained road experience singing backup on their uncle Bobby Womack's final tour, according to Lyndsanity, which reports Bobby Womack invited them on tour after they sent him a homemade Christmas recording.
From Rideshare Driving To A Daptone Deal
Before Daptone came calling, the sisters spent years grinding through day jobs, including a stretch driving for Uber in Los Angeles to cover rent while trying to launch their music careers full time, according to Red Light Management. That experience directly inspired the album track “Chauffeur,” which Zeimani described to the Chronicle as a song about getting in the driver's seat, with the track itself centered on her period behind the wheel for the rideshare company.
The album also includes “You Went Away Too Long,” which explores love interrupted by loss, and “If I Let You,” which the Chronicle describes as blending vulnerable lyrics with a buoyant, Latin-tinged soul groove. The sisters worked with Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth, who helped shape the album's arrangements and told the Chronicle the sisters had natural soulful voices that blended together effectively. Roth is also associated with Sharon Jones, Amy Winehouse and Thee Sacred Souls, tying the sisters' project to a broader lineage of analog soul revival acts.
Daptone Records, founded in Brooklyn in 2001 by Roth and Neal Sugarman, built its reputation as an independent, analog-focused soul and funk label, launching modern revivalists like Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Charles Bradley and playing a role in Winehouse's 2006 album “Back to Black,” according to Wikipedia.
A Sold-Out Night At A Century-Old Stage
Saturday's concert at the Greek Theatre, located at 2001 Gayley Road in Berkeley, is sold out. Built in 1903 on the UC Berkeley campus, the 8,500-seat William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre is the oldest outdoor amphitheater in the United States, modeled after the ancient Greek theater of Epidaurus, and has hosted addresses by President Theodore Roosevelt and the Dalai Lama alongside major concert acts, according to Secret San Francisco. While UC Berkeley owns the venue, its concert programming is run by Berkeley-based promoter Another Planet Entertainment, which also produces San Francisco's Outside Lands festival.
The Berkeley stop is part of a larger run: the Womack Sisters are touring with Thee Sacred Souls and LA LOM as part of a North American amphitheater tour announced by Live Nation. Two days before the Berkeley show, the sisters were scheduled to perform with soul icon Al Green at the Hollywood Bowl in a marquee release-day concert for the new album, before heading north to close out the week in front of a sold-out Berkeley crowd.
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