CIDNEY BULLENS
BIO
Cidny Bullens is a songwriter, performer, musician, activist, educator and speaker. Cidny is also a two-time Grammy nominee whose 45-year career in the music business began auspiciously- working with Elton John, Bob Dylan, Gene Clark, Rod Stewart, The Alpha Band, and Pop producer/writer Bob Crewe. She also sang three lead vocals on the movie soundtrack of Grease, then recorded her own critically acclaimed album 1979’s Desire Wire, which earned her a Grammy nomination and catapulted Cindy into the international spotlight.
For most of the 1980’s, Cindy took time off to raise her children. In the 1990’s she had success in Nashville writing with some of Country’s hottest songwriters including Matraca Berg, Radney Foster, Kye Fleming, Jess Leary, Mary Ann Kennedy, Al Anderson, and Bill Lloyd, including the 1994 Country hit “Hammer and Nails” written with and recorded by Radney Foster.
Then in March of 1996, Cindy lost her 11 year-old daughter Jessie to cancer. That tragedy, over the following two years, inspired Cindy to write and record her widely acclaimed 1999 CD Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth, featuring appearances by Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Bryan Adams, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Rodney Crowell, and a haunting duet with her elder daughter, Reid Bullens Crewe.
With that release, Cindy received worldwide attention from press, radio, and television, including NBC’s Today Show, CBS This Morning, Conan O’Brien Late Night, The New York Times, People Magazine, Rolling Stone and many more. The CD also received the Best Rock Album award in 2000 by the AFIM Independent Music Association.
Cindy’s next CD, released in 2001- Neverland, was co-produced by Cindy and Steve Earle’s Twang Trust partner, Ray Kennedy. Once again, Cindy’s friends make appearances on backing vocals -this time featuring Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle and John Hiatt. Her 2005 album, dream #29, was again co-produced with Ray Kennedy and includes the rollicking piano playing of pal Sir Elton John on the title track, and a bluesy, down-home duet with Delbert McClinton, and a vocal appearance by Boston Red Sox great Tim Wakefield. Her 2010 CD, Howling Trains and Barking Dogs is a tribute to her Nashville co-writing days in the 1990’s, compiling her best songs from that period. Her co-writers include Al Anderson, Radney Foster, Bill Lloyd, Wendy Waldman, and Matraca Berg.
In 2007, Cindy formed the upstart and uprising super-trio The Refugees (http://therefugeesmusic.com) with award winning singer//songwriter Wendy Waldman and Animal Logic’s Deborah Holland. These three artists toured for eight years, tearing it up together across North America. Their first CD Unbound was released in 2009 and their second CD THREE in 2012. Their EP How Far It Goes was released in mid-2019. After a long hiatus The Refugees returned to the stage and the studio in 2023 with a brand new album California. This album includes The Refugees versions of songs the classic California-sound bands of the 60s–The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Mamas & Papas, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Flying Burrito Brothers, even Sly & The Family Stone. California is due out on May 19, 2023.
In 2011, Cindy became Cidny, making the difficult and daunting decision to transition from female to male, not knowing what the personal or professional response would be. Cid’s coming out article in the Daily Beast in June, 2012 portrays his decision and the beginning of this difficult journey www.thedailybeast.com/singer-cindy-bullens-goes-public-shes-becoming-cidny-a-man He stepped back from the public eye to go through the process until 2016 re-emerging as Cidny Bullens having written his one person show Somewhere Between: Not An Ordinary Life,
Cid premiered his show in Santa Fe, New Mexico in February of 2016 with globally noted solo show/memoir coach Tanya Taylor Rubinstein directing (somaticwriting.com). The show has since been performed all over the US including Los Angeles (twice), New York, Nashville (four times), and Portland, Maine (three times) through 2018. Cid hopes to once again perform the show after the 2023 release of his memoir.
On January 12, 2018 in New York’s City Hall, Cid married Tanya Taylor Rubinstein and they now live in Nashville, TN, while Cid still spends whatever time he can at his home on the remote island of North Haven, Maine.
In 2019, a documentary short, The Gender Line, about Cid’s life screened at major film festivals all over the world through 2021, garnering several “Best Documentary Short” awards. The film was directed by T.J. Parsell and produced by Bill Brimm.
Cid recorded his first album as “Cidny Bullens” in Nashville with Ray Kennedy (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell) co-producing. The album Walkin’ Through This World, reflects Cid’s years in transition while the songs themselves, in Cidny Bullens’ style remain musically, lyrically and emotionally universal.The video, “The Gender Line”, is garnering much attention and praise including Sir Elton John, who featured the song and video, along with others on this album, on his Youtube show. Walkin” Through This World was originally released on Cid’s Blue Lobster Records in August, 2020 and was featured in American Songwriter, No Depression, Americana Highways, The Nashville Scene, and many other publications and music blogs. The album was also featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered as a top release for the week. Cidny was profiled and featured on the front page of the Washington Post Sunday Arts & Style section on August 30, 2020. The album will be re-released this year on Kill Rock Stars Records.
During the Pandemic, Cid did not stay idle. He wrote a book. Cid’s memoir TransElectric: My Life as a Cosmic Rock Star from Chicago Review Press is now available from pre=order on Amazon.com and other bookstores online, with the physical release date of June 6, 2023. Some of the endorsements for TransElectric include Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Carl Bernstein, multi-Grammy award winning artist Bonnie Raitt, tennis legend Billie Jean King, multi-Grammy winning producer T Bone Burnett, and an additional array of artists, authors, movers and shakers.
