After moving to San Francisco in 1971, Pena called the Grateful Dead office, which helped find him work. He opened for Jerry Garcia and Merl Saunders at the Keystone in Berkeley and other area clubs many times over the course of the next three years. Pena said of Keystone owner Freddie Herrera, "His idea of an audition was for me to come and open up for Garcia and Saunders. That went on for some time. Whenever he would have somebody, not knowing who would open, he would call me."[3]
Pena's debut album was the self-titled Paul Pena, recorded with guitarist Jeff Baxter, drummer Juma Santos, and former Perkins classmate Ellis Hall on backing vocals, and released by Capitol Records in 1972. His follow-up album New Train was recorded in 1973 by Bearsville Records and was produced by Ben Sidran (keyboardist for the Steve Miller Band). New Train featured Jerry Garcia, Merl Saunders, and The Persuasions. Albert Grossman, the owner of Bearsville Records (and best known as the manager of Bob Dylan), stopped release of the record after a dispute with Pena and his then-manager, Dr. Gunther Weil.[citation needed] Pena remained contractually obligated to Grossman, and was unable to record for another label.
Sidran gave an unreleased copy of New Train to Steve Miller, who recorded "Jet Airliner" with the Steve Miller Band for the 1977 album Book of Dreams. Miller's version of "Jet Airliner" was a hit single, and went to #8 on the charts. Pena's primary source of income in his later years were royalties from that single, which was a song about Pena's airplane trip from Boston to Montreal to play the first-ever date with T-Bone Walker's band.
Pena temporarily suspended his musical career to care for his wife Babe, who was experiencing kidney failure. She died in 1991.
New Train was finally released in 2000, 27 years after it was recorded. In 2001 Pena conducted his last tour, playing a number of dates in support of the album. He opened shows for The String Cheese Incident in March of that year, and for Bob Weir's Ratdog in April. He was a presenter at the 22nd annual W. C. Handy Awards in May. He then appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on June 8, 2001, and played "Jet Airliner".
While searching for a Korean language lesson on shortwave radio on December 29, 1984, Pena was intrigued by an example of Tuvan throat singing he heard on a Radio Moscow broadcast. At the same time he heard an interview with the English musician Jill Purce, one of the pioneers of overtone chanting in the West, on KPFA radio in Berkeley, California, and obtained her recording. Seven years later he found a Tuvan record at a local record store called Tuva: Voices From the Center of Asia, and listened to it "continuously".[4] Based on that record and extended experimentation, he was able to teach himself the vocal techniques called Khoomei, Sygyt, and Kargyraa. Pena said:
After playing the CD continuously for several months and driving many of my friends away by making weird noises while experimenting with my voice, I finally learned a few of the basic techniques of this fascinating group of vocal styles by remembering the styles of some of the blues greats of the past – especially Charlie Patton, Tommy McClennan, and Chester "Howlin' Wolf" Burnett.[4]
Pena also taught himself Tuvan. There were no Tuvan-to-English translation dictionaries, so Pena used two dictionaries: Tuvan-to-Russian and Russian-to-English. He used a device called an Optacon to scan the pages and convert the printed words into tactile sensations he could read with his finger.
Pena attended a performance of Tuvan throat singing at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco on February 6, 1993. He performed an impromptu Tuvan song in the kargyraa style, which impressed famous Tuvan throatsinger Kongar-ol Ondar.[5] Ondar invited Pena to sing in the second international Khoomei Symposium in 1995 in Kyzyl, Tuva. Pena travelled to Tuva and was the first westerner to compete in the Symposium. He placed first in the Kargyraa contest and also won the "audience favorite" category.
Tuvans affectionately call him "Cher Shimjer" (which means "earthquake", Tuvan: Чер шимчээр, [t͡ʃɛr.ʃim.ˈt͡ʃɛːr]), because of the deepness of his voice. Pena said, "My voice is lower than most Tuvans. They have a style that makes your voice lower. When I use that, there's a slow song when I hit a note that's four white keys from the left of the piano."[6]
Deep in the Heart of Tuva: Cowboy Music From the Wild East, (various artists) released in 1996 by Ellipsis Arts
Genghis Blues, first released in 1996 by TuvaMuch Records, re-released with additional tracks in 2000 by Six Degrees Records
Live recordings
Fly Walker Airlines, the T-Bone Walker Blues Band, 1972 by Polydor Records. T-Bone Walker, guitar and vocals; Paul Pena, lead guitar and vocals; Hartley Severns, saxophones and violin; Johnny Summers, bass guitar; Vinnie Johnson, drums. Recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival June 17–20, 1972
Stormy Monday, released in 1996, the T-Bone Walker Blues Band, by Delta Music. This is a bootleg version of the album Fly Walker Airlines taken from the radio broadcast of the concert of June 17, 1972, in Montreux, Switzerland. The CD incorrectly lists a recording date of 1968.
Giant Killers, Big Bones and Paul Pena. Recorded live at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, California in February 1991.
Delta by the San Francisco Bay, Paul Pena, Alvin Youngblood Hart And Big Bones, 2012 by GangsterBlues.com. Recorded live in August 1991. Available in mp3 format only.
