Shawna Virago
Heaven Sent Delinquent
(Tranimal Records)

Transgender music pioneer and cult solo acoustic artist Shawna Virago’s new studio album Heaven Sent Delinquent is simply brilliant. It’s great when you hear someone basically just singing along to a well-played acoustic who has something truly worth saying. Virago manages a seemingly raw approach in a punk-folk sensibility across 10 songs about us all, should we be a misfit, outlaw, or garden variety suburbanite looking for identity. “Bright Green Ideas” is a slipping solo acoustic number built around Shawna’s lower-register slight growl. The chorus is spiky and fun, informing an upbeat little opener. The single, a slow and muted, strummed “Gender Armageddon” follows, a tragic tale that skirts a very tight, dangerous line, as much from the story the lyrics tell as its jabbing lead guitar moments and what Shawna manages with her almost talking vocals. It’s a killer tune, really. “The Ballad of Miss Suzy Texas” is a mid-tempo country story song, while “Burnout,” with lyrics like, “The girls wore black, like they were Sylvia Plath/But I bet they never even read her” reminds me of the best of Velvet Underground and Lou Reed’s street truths. It’s another great tune about hiding secrets in a place where you are just dying to light out from. “Holy Rollers” pulls no punches in its character study and features a way-in-the-background lead guitar to Virago’s acoustic and “Land of Guns and Honey” with is heavy acoustic strumming, quick lyric rush, and harmonica is about as down-home of a Dylan homage as Virago gets here. It’s a great personal statement to end Heaven Sent Delinquent.