Baby Dee: Peace Beyond Tragedy

NPR.org – By Kathryn Yu

NPR.org – Transgender singer-songwriter Baby Dee has a rich, captivating, otherworldly voice. It soars majestically over mournful, sustained piano chords in “Safe Inside the Day” before retreating and returning, boldly and forcefully.

Baby Dee’s resume includes stints as a harpist, a street musician and a sideshow performer, but it seems as if she’d be most comfortable in a world of her own creation, singing vaudeville. Bringing to mind Antony Hegarty of Anthony and the Johnsons, her voice is a force of nature, marked by dramatic outbursts and an unmistakable air of tragedy.