Voting Station

Paul Pena

Please vote to return to collections.

Vocalist

The Resume

    (January 26, 1950-October 1, 2005)
    Born in Hyannis, Barnstable, Massachusetts
    Later based in San Francisco
    Albums include ‘Paul Pena’ and ‘New Train’
    Appeared in ‘Genghis Blues’ (1995 Sundance Audience Award winner)
    Wrote ‘Jet Airliner’ (as performed by the Steve Miller Band in 1977)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was born with congenital glaucoma (an innate ocular issue); by age 20, he was completely blind.
    A dispute with the Bearsville Records owner – who stopped release of ‘New Train’ as a result – left him unable to change labels because of their contract.
    To learn Tuvan, he needed a Tuvan-Russian dictionary, followed by a Russian-English dictionary, and both scanned through an Optical to Tactile Converter (Optacon).
    When his bedroom caught fire, he ended up in a four-day smoke-induced coma.
    His medical expenses for diabetes and pancreatitis – the latter an initial mis-diagnosis – were large enough to transcend his death.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Since his father and grandfather were fixtures on the Morna music scene, he came by his talent – and knowledge of Cape Verdean Creole – honestly.
    He opened for the collective and individual members of the Grateful Dead — among other acts.
    He briefly suspended his musical career to care for his ailing wife (who would die of kidney failure in 1991).
    Having demonstrated his rapid mastery of the kargyraa style of throat singing to the Tuvans (based between Siberia and Mongolia), they nicknamed him ‘Chershemjer’ (‘earthquake,’ 1990s).
    It took 27 years for ‘New Train’ – produced by Miller’s keyboardist – to finally be released, but he lived to see it.

Credit: Cool It All Right?


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying