Discovered by Friends Of Sound record store owner/music licensor David Haffner while record-shopping in Fort Worth, TX and passed on to Truth & Soul for reissue, Never Coming Back is a private-press soul find well worth the second life it's now been given, as gritty backbeat-laden, horn-section-accented numbers are balanced with smoky smooth slower, guitar-accompanied tracks, and Nanette's lightly fiery vocal approach is impressively subtle and versatile throughout.
"The life of any musician is filled with moments that could have sent her career down a completely different path. For Shirley Nanette, it was the recording of Never Coming Back in 1973...Attempts to get the sessions released by one of the major labels of the day came to naught, and the 500 privately pressed albums that Nanette and her husband Al made left her with boxes of vinyl in her basement. While she isn't hurting for work or recognition these days, Nanette is reclaiming at least a small part of her previous musical life with the help of Truth & Soul Records. The Brooklyn-based label reissued Never Coming Back last month, with lovers of rare groove and historians of '70s soul singing its praises at long last." - The Portland Mercury