Jackie Shane rules, and here’s the proof
The fearless soul singer made music that was ahead of its time. 50 years later, we finally get to hear her songs.
The FADER's weekly column What Rules highlights one of our office's new obsessions.
Who are they?
Name: Jackie Shane
Role: Pioneering soul and rhythm and blues singer.
Location: Born in Nashville, Tennessee in the 1940s, and found a true home in Toronto, Ontario in the '60s. Now aged 77, she resides in Nashville.
Why should I listen?
I feel lucky to have come across Jackie Shane’s music. The powerful, pioneering trans artist made a name for herself in mid-1960s Toronto, after moving to Canada from Nashville. Her voice is fantastic: bright and sure of itself, soul-drenched in tone, with the sweetest brassy rasp. She sings of love and heartache, and her songs have the power to electrify listeners. On live cuts, she can, in the same breath, flip seamlessly from belting a song to stepping into monologue, proudly telling it like it is. “You won’t believe this, but you know some of them funny people have the nerve to point their finger at me, and grin, and smile and whisper,” she recounts in the middle of "Money (That’s What I Want) (Live)". “But you know that don’t worry Jackie because I know I look good. And every Monday morning, I laugh and grin to the bank, because I got mine.”
After several years of recording music, regularly performing, and even gaining a regional hit with "Any Other Way," she stepped away from music and slipped into a more private life. But now, almost 50 years later, archival record label Numero Group has worked in collaboration with Shane (and done God’s work!) to put out Any Other Way, a 25-track, painstakingly compiled collection of her work. It includes original singles, her takes on soul classics, and 13 live tracks recorded in the 1960s, that together bring the groundbreaking artist to life for a new, wider audience to appreciate. Tune in, and soak in the greatness that is Jackie Shane.