Maine Voices Live: Cidny Bullens

Cidny Bullens is a musician, activist and educator. Over a four-plus decade career in the music business, Bullens has worked with the likes of Elton John, Bob Dylan, Gene Clark and Rod Stewart. In 2011, Bullens transitioned from Cindy to Cidny, and uses male pronouns, but in referring to their career as Cindy Bullens, uses she and her. In 1978 and 1979, she was twice nominated for Grammy awards, as a lead vocalist on the “Grease” film soundtrack and the following year for her debut album “Desire Wire.”

After stepping away from the industry to raise a family, Bullens spent time in Nashville crafting tunes with country songwriters including Radney Foster and Matraca Berg among others. Bullens’s 1999 album “Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth” reflects on the loss of her 11-year-old daughter Jessie to cancer. It features an all-star roster of guests including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams and Bryan Adams.

In 2016 Bullens was back in the spotlight with his one-person show “Somewhere Between: Not an Ordinary Life.” The show has been performed in New Mexico, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York and Maine. In 2019 the documentary short “The Gender Line” about Cid’s life began screening at film festivals.

Last year, Bullens released “Walkin’ Through This World,” his first album since transitioning.

Born in Massachusetts, and now living in in Nashville with his spouse Tanya Taylor Rubinstein, Bullens spent 30 years living in southern Maine and still visits his home on North Haven Island.

Bullens was be interviewed by Portland Press Herald writer Aimsel Ponti.