Cidny Bullens

Nearly 40 years before his 2012 public identification as transgender, Newburyport, Massachusetts native Cidny Bullens (née Cindy Bullens) established a career as a highly respected singer-songwriter. Her career kickstarted in 1975 after a chance meeting at a party with Elton John led to her joining his 1975 Rock of the Westies tour and an appearance on his 1976 album Blue Moves; she also joined up with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue n 1975/6. Collaborations followed with Rod Stewart, Gene Clark, Geoff Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Al Anderson, T-Bone Burnett and many others, and she went on to build her own small-but-well-regarded discography.

Her 1979 debut album, Desire Wire, earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance (for the single “Survivor”); she also earned Grammy nominations for her work on the Grease soundtrack (singing lead on “It’s Raining On Prom Night,” “Mooning,” and “Freddy, My Love”). After taking a break from the spotlight for some 20 years (except for one eponymous album in 1989), Bullens recorded several LPs including 1999’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth (a wrenching song cycle chronicling the loss of a young daughter to cancer) and 2001’s Neverland; she also formed the trio The Refugees (with Wendy Waldman and Deborah Holland).

In 2012, Bullens publicly identified as transgender male and began using the name “Cidny” instead of “Cindy.” He debuted his one-person show “Somewhere Between: Not An Ordinary Life” in 2016 and continues to perform it and other material at venues across the US.

(by Stephen Haag)