“‘Do What You Want’ was a really fun song to write,” says Nashville’s hit-penning songwriter and independent artist Erin Enderlin. She’s talking about award-winning, female-forward sextet Sister Sadie’s new single, a country waltz that’s a sizable, yet characteristic change of pace from its predecessor, the bluegrass-tinged love song, “If I Don’t Have You.” “We’re all just tiny dots on a planet, spinning around a sun, in a gigantic galaxy for a tiny blip of time. When I zoom out and look at it that way, it makes the things I spend so much time worrying about seem pretty silly. This song is about keeping that perspective.”
Adds the group’s co-founder and reigning International Bluegrass Music Association Fiddle Player of the Year Deanie Richardson, “‘Do What You Want’ came from [Sister Sadie singer/guitarist] Dani Flowers, Erin and myself sitting around talking about life. How hard it can be; how we have so many expectations put on us, especially being women; how we are all divided. No matter what you do, someone is going to have something good or bad to say about it. So don’t worry about what everyone thinks: ‘Just Do What You Want.’”
“This was a very fun and somewhat therapeutic song to write,” she adds with a laugh. “Maddie Dalton, being the youngest in the band, was the perfect voice for this one.”
Indeed, bass player Dalton’s winsome soprano is the perfect vehicle for delivering “Do What You Want,” which punctuates two brief verses that outline those expectations with a cheerfully defiant chorus:
You’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t
And you’ll never be happy if you don’t do what you want
And as far as I know you’ve only got one life to live
When you’re dead and buried six feet in the ground
Well, you won’t be worried like you’re worried now
So do it or don’t, you might as well do what you want
And while an appropriately loose-limbed accompaniment that enhances the group’s acoustic bluegrass instrumentation with honky tonk piano, electric guitar and drums is present right from the start, the proceedings get even more raucous on the final chorus — when, after a pointed bridge (They told me that music was a waste of time/But I’m not stuck in an office and hating my life), the entire ensemble cuts loose with a gang singalong final chorus.
“I absolutely love this song and I’m super happy I’m the one that got to sing it,” Dalton enthuses. “I relate to it, as I’m sure so many other people will, too. I’m just excited for the whole world to hear it!”
"Do What You Want" is streaming in Dolby Atmos spatial audio on Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. Listen to it HERE.
