New Train - The Album

The Album

New Train features Grateful Dead member Jerry Garcia playing pedal steel guitar on "Venutian Lady" and "Taking Your Love Down." Merl Saunders (frequent collaborator with Garcia and the Dead) plays keyboards on "Venutian Lady" and "New Train". The a cappella group The Persuasions sing on "Gonna Move" and "Let's Move and Groove."

Stylistically, the album runs the gamut from straight-up rock and roll (on the original version of "Jet Airliner") to folk to acid rock (on the Jimi Hendrix-esque "Cosmic Mirror") to Rhythm and Blues on the standout track "Gonna Move". The Grateful Dead-inspired "Venutian Lady" echoes their hit "Bertha".

Albert Grossman, owner of Bearsville Records, stopped release of the record after a dispute with Pena.

Ben Sidran gave an unreleased copy of New Train to Steve Miller, who recorded Pena's "Jet Airliner" with his band for their 1977 album Book of Dreams. The "Jet Airliner" single went to #8 on the charts. Pena's primary source of income in his later years were royalties from that single.

The album remained unreleased for 27 years. After years of unsuccessful attempts, Pena's attorney (and original executive producer on the album) Jon Waxman negotiated for the album's release in 2000 on the New York-based Hybrid Recordings label.