Cindy got her first real break when she crashed a studio party and met Elton John, who was impressed enough to hire Cindy as a backup singer on his US tour. Cindy sang with Elton on three major tours.| In 1978, Cindy was nominated for a Grammy Award for her vocal performances on the Grease film soundtrack. The following year, she released her debut solo album Desire Wire (United Artists, 1979) and scored a breakthrough hit with her song “Survivor,” which earned Cindy a second Grammy Award nomination for best rock vocal performance. Signed to Casablanca Records in 1980, Cindy released Steal The Night, a strong sophomore album. Cindy married Dan Crewe in 1979, and for the next ten years she largely set aside her career to raise their two daughters, Reid, now 23, and Jessie, who passed away in 1996. In the mid 90’s, Cindy began spending time in Nashville, writing with such songwriters as Al Anderson and Radney Foster, with whom she penned the hit song, “Hammer & Nails.” Such diverse artists as Texas blues diva Sarah Brown, New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas, and pop-country superstars the Dixie Chicks have all recorded Cindy’s songs. In 1994, Cindy released “Why Not?,” a collection of demos recorded with her friend David Mansfield, on her own Blue Lobster label. In 1999, Artemis Records picked up her Blue Lobster album Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth, written after her daughter Jessie’s death, for national distribution. The album received the AFIM (independent music) award for “Best Rock Album.” One of the highlights of her 2000 tour was opening a series of California concerts at the personal request of headliner Emmylou Harris. In the summer of 2001, Cindy collaborated with Tony Award-winning producer and director John Wulp on Islands, a musical about life on North Haven, an island off the coast of Maine where Cindy has a summer home. With songs by Cindy and book by John Wulp, “Islands” was first produced in May of 2000 with a local cast of non-professionals portraying themselves. The musical received much acclaim both statewide and nationally as a unique story and project, and as a result the original cast of “Islands” debuted to a sold out audience at the New Victory Theater on Broadway in Spetember of 2001. That same year, Cindy released Neverland. Co-produced by Cindy and Steve Earle’s TwangTrust partner Ray Kennedy, “Neverland” brought Cindy back to the bare bones fun of her rock ‘n roll roots. Featuring guest appearances by Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, and John Hiatt, “Neverland”garnered Cindy several spots on various Top Ten lists after its release in the USA. “When people ask me what I do, I say I’m a rock and roller,” Cindy notes. “I’ve said that from the beginning, and I still say it today. Many people consider me a singer-songwriter in the category of John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle, and I’m very proud to be in their company, but when you come to see me play live, playing the same Les Paul or Stratocaster I played 20 years ago, you will know I’m a rock-and-roller.” Over the last few years, Cindy has toured in Europe and Australia. In the summer of 2004, she gathered with an all-star band at Ray Kennedy’s Room & Board Studio in Hermitage, Tennessee, to record her sixth solo album, Dream #29. The album features Sir Elton John playing rollicking piano on the title track, a duet with roadhouse bluesman Delbert McClinton and a guest vocal by the World Champion Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The CD also features some of the best musicians in the world: George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt) on guitar, Dennis Burnside on keys, Ginger Cote (The Coming Grass) on drums, and Garry W. Tallent (E-Street Band) on bass, Dream #29 is an absorbing collection of rock & roll, balancing poignant and introspective songs with a down-and-dirty rock & roll attitude. |
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