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Heritage Railway now has its own song!

He took along California poet and rock lyricist Stevie Kalinich, a mutual friend of legendary Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson, as his guest for the trip.

Stevie was later treated to a fully-fledged trip on the Mid-Hants Railway by Heritage Railway reader Roy Gudge, and was so inspired by his experience of British rail travel both modern and yesteryear that he wrote the lyrics for a song, Train to Train.

Originally title Through the Windows of a Train, it was first published in Heritage Railway issue 116 in 2008, and has now been recorded in Nashville by guitarist Jon Tiven, who formed a group Yo Ma Ma to record a double CD album with Stevie as lyricist.

The album, Shortcuts To Infinity/Symptomology, was produced by Mark Linett, best known for his work in recent times with Brian Wilson and the new smash hit Beach Boys 50th anniversary album, That’s Why God Made The Radio.

Among the guest star guitarists listed on the Tiven album is none other than Queen’s Brian May.

Listen to the song now:

By kind permission of Stevie Kalinch and Jon Tiven

Stevie’s career took off in the Sixties when he wrote lyrics for several Beach Boys songs, notably on the 1968 album Friends.
He has since worked with all three Wilson brothers, Brian, Carl and Dennis, and also many other top artists like Paul McCartney. He was introduced to Jon Tiven by songwriter P.F. Sloan, whose career egan with an early Sixties surf band, the Fantastic Baggys, and the three of them visited India together in 2006.

Robin designs and edits the European fan magazine Beach Boys Stomp in his spare time. St Pancras International subsequently won the Heritage Railway Association’s Peter Manisty Award for Excellence.

The album was released on September 12, and Stevie emailed Robin to say: “You and Roy helped pen up more of England and Belgium to me than anyone and I hope you will do more if I come again.”
Robin said: “I have admired Stevie’s work since I was at college as a teenager in the Seventies. If we have in any small way helped inspire a song like this I am flattered beyond belief.”

The album, released by MsMusic Productions, is now available to buy on Amazon USA.