The Patron Saints

The Patron Saints, a three-piece band from New York state, recorded one album, Fohhoh Bohob, during the summer of 1969. The entire self-produced project was taped at drummer Paul D'Alton's house while his parents were away on vacation.

Songwriters Eric Bergman and Jon Tuttle handled the guitar, bass, banjo, and piano chores on the nine songs, which carried a summery, acoustic vibe with a range of influences including the Who, Love, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan.

The band decided to go whole hog with their self-made album, using Tuttle's complicated cover drawing and an insert with fancy full-color graphics, but perversely could only could afford to press 100 copies! Needless to say, the album never had enough exposure to catch on with anyone "influential," at least at the time.

But years later, as these "private press" records have gained an audience, and have become super-desirable to a certain kind of rich and/or wild-eyed record collector, Fohhoh Bohob has reached a sort of notoriety. If you can even find someone who'll sell you their vinyl copy, it could cost you a couple thousand dollars. There may be as few as 20 of them left in existence.

Luckily for the rest of us, Eric Bergman put together a reissue, on CD, of the album in 1997 on his Maxfield label. He also has an amazingly thorough website, www.maxmulti.com, in which he relates the entire Patron Saints story as well as information on his other bands.

AUGUST 28 UPDATE: Fohhoh Bohob has just been reissued, both on album and CD, with bonus tracks, on Time-Lag Records. Check out their catalog here.

Jon Tuttle, later diagnosed with schizophrenia, died in the 1990s, and he's not around to benefit from the increased interest in the band...but you can hear his lovely "Nostalgia Trip" if you click on the link below.