For gays who still conjure up the old-school image of male-to-female transgender musical artists as merely lip-synching drag queen type posers, think again! The trans music scene, be it rock, folk, pop, classical, jazz or experimental, is blossoming everywhere these days with its own vibrant, genuine, original talent. For proof of this exciting effusion of inspired trans offerings, one need look no further than the brand-new TG Music Compilation CD (vol. 1), released March 28, 2005.

Helping members to share their music with each other and to “come out” and enjoy their true personalities, without fear, has resulted in a truly special labor of love: the TGMS Compilation CD, wherein uniquely “transgender” experiences and personal truths have found powerful expression through the magic of music.

Morwen Madrigal of Pirate Princess Productions (the CD’s distributor) says, “This is about our world--a place not many people know. Trans folk are so very much like all other people. It’s just that “gender thing” that some in this world cannot accept or understand.”

Generally speaking, I’ve never been much of a fan of indie compilation CDs, gay or straight. Often thrown together quickly and without remastering, they can make for an uneven, rambling listening experience. Many confuse quantity with quality, and are simply too long, with too many tracks. Of particular annoyance in gayland are the ubiquitous, bland, anonymous instrumental disco offerings. Usually sporting an enticingly buff, half-nude hunk on the cover, and irksomely catalogued as “gay music,” these slickly marketed, patronizing products often sound like the brainchild of uninspired computer nerds with do-it-all music sequence programs.

Some CD compilations promo themselves as conscientious “tribute” efforts, espousing this or that political cause, and purporting to compile appropriately themed, in-scope songs from artists everywhere. Closer scrutiny often reveals the release is the enterprise of one talent agent’s or indie record label’s stable of signed talent.

Even worse can be those compilations that make the contributing artists pay for inclusion, like the CDs released through regional “music conferences”. Any submission, no matter how awful, is thus included. The result can be a mess.

Most unscrupulous of all are the compilation producers who gather free songs from artists, with the promise of sharing the profits later on. But tracking the sales of indie releases is difficult, and I’ve known numerous artists who’ve been conned into donating their songs to such scams.

But in the case of the TGMS compilation, I’ll not mince words--I love this album! In fact, I love everything about it: the artists, the songs, the flow and arranged order of the tracks, the CD artwork and the simple, easy-to-read text and credits. Whenever I play it, I find myself floating around my apartment with a big smile on my face.

There is a grass-roots energy to this recording, reminiscent of the great flowering of American music in the 1960s, that’s really refreshing. I don’t even mind that some of its tracks are low budget, “home recording” kind of offerings. So much pop music today is way too slick and over-produced sounding anyway. The digital and computer intrusion into the creative and production processes has resulted in a kind of sonic perfection that tends to impart flatness and sameness to everything.

In the case of the TGMS CD, the individuality and “can do” creative spirit of the different contributors practically jumps off the CD. No matter how much alienation, ostracism, and emotional pain these artists went through, and I’m sure it was considerable, it never kept them from observing the world around them--and like all true artists, they have made something out of the experience.

Virtually every style of popular music is represented on this collection. The only overall thematic consistency is that the songs are about the lives, loves and dreams of TG Music Society members. And it works. On some compilations, the inclusion of many different music styles can make for a disjointed, confusing listening ordeal. Not so here. Every track comes off as a surprise, like some kind of sudden crazy u-turn that immediately grabs the ear.

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