By Terrance Heath for LGBTQ Nation
If ever an artist was ahead of their time, it was Jackie Shane. Before there was RuPaul or even Sylvester, there was Jackie Shane, a transgender woman and soul music performer who broke boundaries in the 1960s.
Her first full-length album, a two-disc set titled after her hit single “Any Other Way,” was released in October 2017 and is nominated for a Best Historical Album Grammy Award.
Shane’s story began in Nashville, where she was born in 1940 and where she got her start in music. She moved north to escape the South’s Jim Crow laws and ended up on Montreal, Quebec.
Saxophonist Herbert Whitaker invited Shane, still presenting as a man at the time, to watch the popular band Frank Motley and his Motley Crew. Invited to join the group onstage, Shane performed songs by Ray Charles and Bobby “Blue” Bland.