Saint Steven

Not to be confused with the Ohio-based One St. Steven, this Boston, Massachusetts-based outfit is one of those mystery acts nobody seems to know all that much about. It was apparently a one-man act led by former of the minor late '60s Boston psychedelic band Front Page Review and late-inning Ultimate Spinach, alumnus Steve Cataldo. Regardless, of his background, St. Steven managed to release one intriguing album on ABC's Probe subsidiary.

His 1969 album, also called Saint Steven, was similarly period psychedelia. This was one of those records that came out of nowhere, was played on FM radio a bit and then disappeared without a trace.

Each side of the album was a suite, "Over the Hills" on side one and "The Bastich" on side two.
Musically the set offers up a bizarre mix of commercial folk-rock ("Grey Skies"), pseudo-psych moves ("Bastich I"), hard rock ("Poor Small") and sound effects ('Voyage To Cleveland'). In spite of it's lack of focus, Cataldo was a more than decent singer and capable of writing attractive and quite commercial material.
Pop-rock sensibilities were sprinkled with bits of odd sound effects (animal roars, 1968 Republican Convention soundbites) never to either terrible or good results. Each of these songs balances the innocent with the darker forces that we all must confront. Saint Steven uses his own mythical figures, "Gladacadova" and "Ay-Aye-Poe-Day", to add magic and mystery to his little tales. In the middle of "Poor Small", the song stops and we get an excerpt from one of the Presidential elections in which some old woman is reading the tally of states and hitting a gavel.
With the Vietnam war at its height and the assassination of Robert Kennedy a recent memory, this legendary album juxtaposed fine rock music with audio excerpts from US television news and is a true one-off.
The bonus cuts erroneously added to the reissue are actually recordings by Steve Cataldo's previous outfit Front Page Review.

The cover features "Saint Steven" hugging his guitar floating up in the clouds as the sun
radiates around him with a drawing of a sea monster slithering down at the edge of the ocean.
No musicians were listed inside, just the producer, engineer and cover design folks.
The lyrics were included and are quite poetic with the feeling of dread buried beneath some of the warmer imagery.

In the mid-'70s Cataldo reappeared as a member of The Nervous Eaters.