55 Years in the Vault: Ray Zeiner’s “New Day” and “Going Back Home” - Blue-Eyed Soul Unearthed from the Trod Nossel Archives
In one of our regular large archival sweeps through the Trod Nossel vault for unreleased material, a 1971 tape turned up. The 2022 sweep was only one of many that continue to this day. It held two sides Ray Zeiner cut after his time with the Wildweeds, sides that never left the building.
Ray wrote and sang both tracks. The lineup was Bob Dudek on drums, Warren Bloom on bass, and Ray on piano, Wurlitzer, acoustic guitar, and clavinets. The sessions were recorded at Trod Nossel Studios in Wallingford for Poison Ring Records and produced by Thomas “Doc” Cavalier. Two other sides from the same period (“I Had A Girl” and “You Know Your Love”) were released in 1971; these two stayed on the shelf.
The second song was originally titled “Guess I’ll Be Going” and “Guess I’ll Be Going Back Home.” It was later re-titled “Going Back Home.”
Darlene Cavalier, Fred Bova, and Rob Cavalier unearthed the tape during the archive sweep. Fred is also one of our artists and writers from the Nelsen Adelard Band and Dexter Beken & The Risers (an Adelard spinoff) in the 1970s and 80s. He is a brilliant tech and engineer who can fix anything, part of the large, far-reaching Trod Nossel family and community that stretches between the in-house team and decades of clients. The material was on a 2" multitrack master. Fred transferred it to Pro Tools on April 20, 2022. Rob mixed both stereo and mono mixes on August 15, 2022 before the material went to Fervor Records. Fervor restored and remastered the tracks for release. The original master is a Poison Ring / Trod Nossel Productions master.
The original was a 2" multitrack master. In 1971 the studio had just moved to 16-track and installed the API console, the format and room Doc Cavalier described as the studio’s step up that year. Doc also kept an EMT plate reverb and used it on everything. The plate itself, the size of a wall, was wired into the studio but housed and tucked away just outside the concert and tech offices. The 1971 singles that were released at the time carried that sound as well as other releases from that era. The plate was later sold (around 2010) once the studio stopped using it. These unearthed sides exist as raw multitracks, so it is not clear whether any EMT was printed to the multi before the final mix.
In 2025 Fervor released a JDM Remix of “New Day.” As recently as July 2026, Hotel Indigo used that remix for ads on its website and organic social channels.
“New Day” is now available for streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other major platforms. “Going Back Home” remains rare and unreleased on streaming services. It is featured here and on the official visualizer from Fervor, giving a direct listen to a 55-year-old side that has not circulated before. Hey, maybe Fervor wants to put out a physical vinyl. We have tons of original Poison Ring vinyl label stickers.
Watch the official visualizer:
It is always refreshing to see a real studio, with real humans mixing, on real outboard gear, of a song that was written, performed, and produced by real people.
This is what the vault still holds: human-written, human-played music cut in a real Connecticut studio, pre-cleared for one-stop licensing. Music supervisors looking for 1970s blues-rock, period soul, or authentic domestic cues can request the private catalog link or contact us directly at 203-269-4465 for the one-stop info.
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