Baby Dee

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1953, performance artist, songwriter, classically trained harpist, circus sideshow veteran, and transgender street legend Baby Dee began her professional path with a decade-long tenure as music director and organist at a Catholic parish in the Bronx. She then entered the circus world as the bilateral hermaphrodite performer at Coney Island, an experience that led directly to her role as bandleader for the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus and a European tour alongside the Kamikaze Freak Show. Upon returning to New York City she established herself as a familiar presence in lower Manhattan, presenting a street act that featured a concert harp mounted on a high-rise tricycle.

Her recording career opened with the 2000 release of Little Window on the Durtro label, followed by a four-track EP in 2001 and the double-disc full-length Love's Small Song in 2002. While finishing the latter album she moved back to Ohio and entered a novitiate with the Cleveland-based Little Sisters of Crabby Doom, an order devoted to the care of smelly old men, though she later left those vows behind. For her next album, Safe Inside the Day, issued in January 2008 on Drag City Records, she assembled an eclectic ensemble that included Will Oldham, Andrew W.K., Robbie Lee, Max Moston of Antony and the Johnsons, Bill Breeze of Psychic TV, John Contreras of Current 93, James Lo of Chavez, and Lia Kessel.

In 2010 she issued A Book of Songs for Anne Marie, a collection of harp- and piano-centered ballads marked by meticulous detail and full orchestration. The following year brought Regifted Light, again produced by Andrew W.K. and continuing in a comparable vein while placing greater weight on instrumental pieces.