St. Anthony and The Mystery Train evolved out of a friendship-turned-creative-collaboration between TJ Volgare and Dave Staples while both were living on the coast of Southern California. One might say the music they wrote originally was a byproduct of homesickness. By channeling the hills, mountains and river-valleys of their childhood into song improvisations they were spontaneously connected to a hybrid expression of folk, country and blues music that would become the backdrop of all their songs. After T.J. and Dave settled in Durham, NC they added the locomoting rhythms of Steven DeConto on bass and Simpson Eason on drums. Soon after, they welcomed the post-punk virtuosity of Michael DePue on lead guitar and ethereal vocals from Paula Hardy, thus completing, "The Mystery Train." SAATM is a band of storytellers taking cues from the magical realism of Tom Waits, free-associations of Bob Dylan, and misfit spirituality of Johnny Cash. The stories inside the music are best described as a stream of Southern-Gothic consciousness designed for taking listeners on strange and beautiful road-trips. The music is a beat-generation novel that guides listeners down meandering back-roads into smoky pool-halls and out onto a Mojave Ridge at dusk.