Nashville, TN: Cidny Bullens is releasing Little Pieces, his debut album for Kill Rock Stars Nashville Little Pieces features a batch of burnished twangy, hook-filled rock songs that explores his late-in-life transition. Produced by Nashville legend Ray Kennedy (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell), this set of songs crackles with vibrant life and a refusal to be defined by anything but itself. Bullens is now married and based in Nashville, where Kill Rock Stars’ founder Slim Moon met him and fell in love with the album, the previously titled self release Walkin’ Through This World. KRS has remastered and repackaged the record to reach a wider audience and added an additional track, “Not With You,” a duet with Beth Nielsen Chapman. Music Row writes, “Bullens is known as a rocker, and Chapman is a pop artist. But together they found twang and a newfound country/Americana direction with this scintillating, romantic duet performance.”
Since coming out as a transgender man, Bullens has been profiled in the Washington Post, American Songwriter, Goldmine, Record Collector (October 2023), among others and recently recorded a new version of his song,”Boxing with God,” from his 1999 album Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth, as a duet with Lucinda Williams; stay tuned for details.
“Bullens has delivered a record that contains not only a message but also some quality rock and roll.” — No Depression
Bullens has had a storied career, from his longtime association with Sir Elton John to singing three songs for the Grease movie soundtrack, to releasing nine critically acclaimed solo albums (recorded under the name Cindy Bullens). Bullens’ candid, moving new memoir, TransElectric: My Life as a Cosmic Rock Star, features a foreword by Elton John and traces his career from his L.A. back-up singer days through his solo career and losing his daughter, Jessie, to cancer at age 11 — which inspired his award-winning album Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth — to his transition to from Cindy to Cidny.
While TransElectric: My Life as a Cosmic Rock Star lays bare his musical history and heart for all to see, Little Pieces, its musical companion, distills that same beauty into the taut musicianship, expressive poetry, and thoughtful melodies that are the hallmarks of his career.
Family is what powers Little Pieces, both in the love for Bullens’ wife and his children. Bullens’ eldest daughter, Reid Bullens Crewe, joins on “Healing the Break,”a song of hope and redemption in the face of darkness—the duet serenely backed by loping acoustic guitar as they expose old wounds and join together in the healing.
With Little Pieces, his first album under the name Cidny, Bullens is reborn again, fully embracing his truest self. “This is a new beginning,” he smiles. “This is me now.”
UPCOMING SHOWS/APPEARANCES:
WED NOV 15 Nashville, TN – The Bluebird Cafe
SAT NOV 18 Hinsdale, IL – Midnight Special/ Acoustic Renaissance Concerts