5 things we learned from the new Jackie Shane documentary

Jackie Shane was a trail-blazing icon, breaking barriers as one of soul and R&B's first Black trans performers. Her music took her across North America, but she found a home in Toronto in the '60s, performing sold-out shows almost every night. In 1971, Shane disappeared from the spotlight. 

While Shane eventually reemerged in the 2010s, even earning a 2019 Grammy Award nomination for a reissue of her music on a compilation titled Any Other Way, there are still many questions surrounding her life and career. In Michael Mabbott and Lucah Rosenberg-Lee's latest documentary, Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story, the filmmakers attempt to tell Shane's entire story, most importantly through her own words.

Featuring never-released phone interviews with Shane herself, conducted a year before her death, and excerpts from a handwritten autobiography found in Shane's closet after her death, the film gives viewers new insight into the mind of a musical legend.

Below are five things we learned from watching the film, which will make its Canadian premiere at the 2024 Hot Docs Festival on Saturday, April 27. Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story will be available on Crave later this fall. 

1. Shane's niece, who inherited her belongings after her death, didn't know about her famous aunt

Shane died in February 2019 at the age of 78. Her niece, Andrenee Majors-Douglas, was Shane's heir — except, she knew nothing about the soul singer. Unaware that she had an aunt who lived up the street from her "for over 40 years," as Majors-Douglas recalled in the film, she and her cousin Vonnie Crawford-Moore were tasked with cleaning out Shane's home. "We inherited madness," Majors-Douglas said, noting that on the dresser in Shane's entryway, was a hat, a large pair of sunglasses, plastic gloves and two guns. When going through her closet, they found a handwritten autobiography by Shane titled Let 'God' be My Judge. Its first line: "I was born, but never lived." 

2. Shane shared a special bond with Little Richard 

Little Richard moved to Nashville after the success of his 1955 hit "Tutti Frutti." It was there, through the Black gay networks, that he first met Jackie Shane, a well-respected teenage drummer who played in the house band at the New Era Club. The two became friends immediately and would check out each other's performances in town. "Richard was coming over to my house everyday," Shane said, in a phone interview. "And I'm in the house, it's summer, early in the morning and I hear someone saying, 'The Empress is here, where be the Emperor?' [...] I went to the door and there's Richard swinging around in his cape. [...] You know, Richard likes to get loud, I said, 'Uh-uh, not in my neighborhood.' You get your tired self in my house." Shane also styled Little Richard's hair pieces.

3. Joe Tex advised Shane to get out of Nashville 

Jim Crow laws provoked racial segregation, tensions and discrimination in 1950s America, and while Shane was a beloved fixture in the Nashville music scene, she witnessed and was always at risk of violence. Because of this, she was advised by fellow musician Joe Tex to leave the South. One night, as Shane remembered, Tex stopped her between shows and said, "Jackie, you're beautiful, exciting, you're talented, you can sing. You'll never become who you could become here. Get out of Nashville, Tennessee." Shane thanked him and left shortly after, first joining a travelling carnival show and later relocating to Montreal. 

4. Etta James was blown away by Shane's performance

In Montreal, Shane met trumpeter Frank Motley and quickly joined his backing Motley Crew band as its singer. Together, they toured Canada and the U.S., selling out shows and opening for acts like Etta James, Marvin Gaye and the Temptations. "When I go on first, look out!" Shane warned headlining acts. Etta James was so impressed by Shane's opening performance that, when she went onstage, she told the crowd, "If I had known what Jackie does, I would have gone on first." 

Shane and Motley continued touring but by 1961, found a new home base in Toronto where they played consistently at the Saphire just off Yonge Street. They even once played there 10 weeks in a row, drawing crowds from Detroit and beyond. "You can't choose where you're born, but you can choose what you call home," Shane said. "When I got to Toronto, I just knew I was home."   

5. She left the music business to live her authentic life

When Shane left Toronto in 1971, many theories surfaced regarding her whereabouts. Some heard she died, potentially killed in a knife fight or drowned in the ocean. Others suggested that she was "busted and deported," as someone said in the film. But the truth was that Shane moved to Pasadena, Calif., with Dan, her partner at the time, to live her life as a woman. She got new IDs under the name Margaret Anne Daley, and tried to live a blissful, domestic life until her relationship fell apart.

After that, she reluctantly moved back to Nashville to care for her mother, her aunt (who was actually her biological mother) and her uncle (her father, who abused her growing up). When all three of them died, Shane remained in Nashville, becoming a recluse who rarely left her home as "she was afraid she was going to have a nervous breakdown," her friend Lorenzo Washington explained, due to the prejudice of others toward her as a transgender woman. In her written autobiography, Shane revealed: "I have never known the feeling of this thing called happiness. Not being given the chance to show others that I am a human being. I am forced to live my life in an odd and difficult manner."