Girl! Let me tell you…Georgie Jessup rocks the house. Her music is like taking a little Bruce Springsteen, adding a tad of Elvis Presley, seasoned with Wilson Picket and a dash of Aretha Franklin. She plays every style from blues, country, gospel and pop to an awesome Native American song accompanied solely by a drum.

A small group had the pleasure of an intimate discussion and concert with Jessup at Booksandcoffee in Dewey Beach back in November to celebrate the release of her latest CD, Woman in a Man’s Suit.

While this isn’t a fashion article, it is noteworthy that she looked amazing that night in a purple and gold velvet dress that had a built-in bustier complete with laces up the front. She wore it with black leggings and red cowgirl boots. You’ve got to love that! Seriously, it was hot.

Listening to Jessup’s music is pure pleasure. Even if you don’t get the lyrics, just feeling the rhythms and hearing the melodies is bliss. You can’t help but dance. When she opened her mouth to sing and her huge muscular Springsteen-like voice boomed into the little room, we soon realized that we might need to look a little closer at this rock ‘n roller.

Georgie is a transsexual; a transsexual on a mission to educate through her music.

A sporadic visitor to our area (Jessup’s aunt has a place in Dewey), Jessup said she is "trying to change the world by bringing balance back to humanity. Music and songwriting is one of my gifts. I use these gifts to help ‘two-spirit peoples’ be respected by the average person, which will have a domino effect on the greater society and other oppressed peoples. It’s all connected."

Jessup uses the Native American term "two-spirit people" to describe a transgendered person. She also uses the term "Winkte" (pronounced Win-tay) which is the Lakota term for two-spirit people.

Georgie Jessup is the kind of person who makes you feel comfortable and able to ask anything. She sees everyone with kind eyes and took time that night to patiently answer even the most personal questions about her transsexuality.

Talking to Georgie Jessup, though, is a little like trying to herd cats. She claims she talks in circles because she thinks in circles because she lives in circles and sees everything as connected.

She doesn’t consider herself an intellectual, but in conversation and in her lyrics, she tackles some of the biggest issues of our day. She analyzes modern thought in its Roman-Christian American framework and is able to contrast it with pre-Columbus thought and moral codes because of her interest in and study of the Lakota people. She is one of those rare people who can make ordinary life into a ceremonial practice.

"I’m standing up for what I know as the truth, and I’m trying to communicate that to people, because I don’t see my view being related out there," Jessup said.

There was a time in her life when Jessup was miserable and angry about being transgendered, but it turned full circle when she adopted the philosophy that every burden given to us by the creator comes with a gift, and the greater the burden, the greater the gift. "It’s a mystery why I am the way I am. It’s from Creator, who made me this way for some reason. I’m taking this journey to find the gift in my burden—that’s what I’m doing," she said.

Jessup encourages us all to find the gifts in our burdens.

For those of you out there who might be thinking this is starting to sound like a lot of New Age mumbo jumbo, just go see Georgie Jessup for the music.

Jessup is a self-taught musician who writes her songs on the guitar. She also plays a number of other instruments including keyboards and drums. She is also learning the accordion. She wrote her first song in sixth grade and she has played in a number of bands. Woman in a Man’s Suit is her fourth album.

The title was inspired by her finding a 1912 photograph of her grandmother proudly dressed in a three-piece man’s suit. The stand-out song is a country waltz titled "The Love That I Come From," which is a tribute to her parents. The album also contains delta bluesy songs, funky riffs and rock ballads.

While the CD features a full band and awesome back up vocals, Jessup is currently playing live in a duo with an incredible young man named Justin "The Whimp." Georgie calls herself "a banger" when it comes to music, meaning she feels like she just bangs it out on the keyboards, but she calls Justin "a musician’s musician."