Jackie Shane

Jackie Shane (May 15, 1940 – February 21, 2019) was an American soul and rhythm and blues singer, who was prominent in the music scene of Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the 1960s. Considered to be a pioneer transgender performer, she was a contributor to the Toronto Sound and is best known for the single "Any Other Way", which was a regional Top 10 hit in Toronto in 1963 and a modest national chart hit across Canada in 1967, reaching No. 68.

Early life Born on May 15, 1940 in Nashville, Tennessee, Jackie Shane knew that she was different from other children her age. Femininity was one of the ways that Shane expressed herself, wearing dresses and makeup and growing out her hair. Shane also mimicked mannerisms and posture cues from popular actress Mae West. Shane's aunt and grandmother both accepted and supported Shane through her early self-discovery. This later influenced her decision to flee the Jim Crow South.

Music career Jackie Shane began her music career as a young teen, demonstrating vocal and rhythmic ability. This was noticed by Louis Lavelle, but was not signed by big record labels.

Vowing to escape the Jim Crow South, in the late 1950s, Shane joined a traveling carnival and arrived in Cornwall, Ontario, in 1959. In 1960, Shane moved to Montreal, Quebec,

Recording career Shane recorded several tracks in 1960, including a cover of Barrett Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)" and a version of Lloyd Price's "I've Really Got the Blues". However, none of the tracks were issued at the time; they eventually came out in 1965.

Shane's first issued recording was "Any Other Way" (with the B-side "Sticks and Stones") in the fall of 1962; the song became her biggest chart hit, reaching No. 2 on Toronto's CHUM Chart in 1963. It was also a hit in the United States, allowing it to place at No. 124 on Billboard's Bubbling Under chart. The track was a cover of a William Bell song first released in summer 1962; Shane's version of "Any Other Way" was noted for adding a different spin to the lyric "Tell her that I'm happy/tell her that I'm gay", playing on the word's double meaning, which was not yet in mainstream usage. In 1965, she made a television appearance in Nashville on WLAC-TV's Night Train, performing Rufus Thomas' "Walking the Dog".

Also in 1965, the tracks from Shane's 1960 recording session were issued, but without Shane's prior knowledge. Two tracks appeared on a 1965 compilation LP entitled The Original Blues Sound Of Charles Brown & Amos Milburn With Jackie Shane - Bob Marshall & The Crystals, while two others (credited to "Little Jackie Shane") were issued as a single. Neither the single nor the album (both issued on small, obscure labels) received much attention.

In 1965, Gerry Lincoln, manager of the pop department at A&A Records, noticed that customers were coming in asking for "Any Other Way" even though it was no longer in print. A fan of Shane himself, he convinced Caravan Records to record Jackie Shane Live and wrote the liner notes.

In 1967, "Any Other Way" was reissued and became a semi-hit across Canada, peaking at No. 68 on the national RPM chart in March. Two singles were also pulled from the live album (covers of "Knock On Wood" and "Don't Play That Song"), but none of the live material charted. A final studio single ("Cruel Cruel World" with B-side "New Way of Lovin'") was released in 1970 and also failed to chart.

Shane faded in prominence after 1971,

Personal life From the age of thirteen, Shane identified herself as a girl, but was consistently misgendered. Shane never publicly addressed her gender identity or sexual orientation until the last years of her life. She wore very feminine clothing during her performances, but her everyday clothes were considered more androgynous. Many at the time thought Shane resembled a masculine or butch lesbian, as she wore glittering suits on stage and wore her hair up. The few sources that sought out her own words on her gender were more ambiguous; she identified herself as male in two early quotes to the Toronto Star, but more often appeared to dodge questions about her gender altogether.

According to filmmaker Lucah Rosenberg-Lee, who co-directed a documentary on Shane, "She identified as 'she' behind closed doors and to her aunt, who she regarded as her mother, and herself, but in the public eye there was no opportunity to do that, and no one would have understood."

Shane was known to be a flirtatious individual. Her bandmates were sent back to the United States. According to the documentary Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, Shane returned to Nashville sometime in the late 1970s with her aunt to care for her biological mother and stepfather, both of whom were ailing.

For a time she was rumored to have died by suicide or to have been stabbed to death in the 1990s, but in fact she had retired from music, and moved home to Nashville from Los Angeles. She kept in touch with Frank Motley, who put a Toronto record collector in touch with her in the mid 1990s. This news was relayed to a small number of her old musician friends, a few of whom contacted her. One, Steve Kennedy, discussed with Shane the possibility of organizing and staging a reunion concert, but this never materialized; the next time Kennedy called the same phone number, it had been reassigned to somebody else who had never heard of Shane.

Jackie Shane Live was reissued as a bootleg in 2011 on Vintage Music as Live at the Saphire Tavern, although the reissue was inaccurately labelled as being from 1963. Several of the original songs covered in the set list had been released much later in the 1960s. It did not win, but has been renominated in subsequent years.

In 2017, a group of Toronto writers published the essay anthology Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer, a history of LGBTQ culture in Toronto; in addition to taking its title from Shane's 1962 single, the book includes an essay devoted specifically to Shane. The album marked the first time since her final single in 1969 that Shane was directly involved in the production and release of a reissue of her music. In an interview with Elio Iannacci of The Globe and Mail, Shane stated she was planning to return to Toronto to perform live for the first time in nearly five decades.

In 2019, Shane granted a broadcast interview to CBC Radio One's Q. The interview was conducted by Elaine Banks, who had been the producer and host of "I Got Mine", and it was Shane's first broadcast interview since the end of her performing career. Her death was reported to media the following day.

Posthumous recognition

In 2022, Shane was the subject of a Heritage Minute segment, in which she was portrayed by transgender activist Ravyn Wngz. The spot was directed by Pat Mills and Ayo Tsalithaba.

In 2023, a fundraising campaign was launched on JustGiving to fund a commemorative Heritage Toronto plaque honoring Shane, at a location to be determined in downtown Toronto. She had been previously featured in their 2021 Sounds Like Toronto digital exhibit. A plaque was unveiled on June 23, 2023, the start of Pride weekend in the city, at the Victoria and Richmond location of the former Saphire Tavern. A public mural on the side of a building on Yonge Street also includes a portrait of Shane as one of several images commemorating the street's live music scene of the 1960s.

In 2023, a GoFundMe campaign was launched by Nashville Queer History to purchase a historical marker honoring Jackie Shane that would be installed in Nashville, Tennessee. The marker was officially dedicated on September 20, 2024.

A documentary about her life, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, directed by Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee and executive produced by Elliot Page, premiered at South by Southwest in March 2024.

Discography Singles "Any Other Way" b/w "Sticks and Stones" (1962) "In My Tenement" b/w "Comin' Down" (1963) "Money (That's What I Want)" b/w "I've Really Got the Blues" (1965) "Stand Up Straight and Tall" b/w "You Are My Sunshine" (1967) "Knock On Wood" b/w "You're The One" (1967) "Don't Play That Song" b/w "Barefootin'" (1968) "Cruel Cruel World" b/w "New Way of Lovin'" (1970)

Albums Jackie Shane Live (Caravan Records, 1967) Honkin' at Midnight (2000, bootleg, with Frank Motley and his Motley Crew) Live at the Saphire Tavern (2011, bootleg) Soul Singles Classics (2011, bootleg) Jackie Shane Live (2015, reissue)

Compilations "Slave for You Baby" and "Chickadee" on The Original Blues Sound of Charles Brown & Amos Milburn with Jackie Shane-Bob Marshall & The Crystals (Grand Prix/Pickwick, 1965) Any Other Way (Numero Group, 2017)