Once upon a time, I wandered into Just Kids, one of the greatest stores in the whole wide world. My buddy Ken always has an excellent selection of stuff… including a bunch of LP’s that would interest virtually no one. These are the records guaranteed to be in every thrift store or nostalgia store: Mitch Miller, those freebie Firestone Tire Christmas albums, and anything on the Buddah label. Ken’s selection of unsellable records was, and remains, the finest in the world. The record I found and purchased for a buck was in a generic brown sleeve which had a piece of paper pasted to it. It looked very strange and somewhat amateurish. It was created by a kid named Judson Fountain. For a buck, why not?
Let me warn you that people either love the records of Judson Fountain or hate them, and the haters are probably in the majority.
When I listened to “The Old Woman of Haunted House,” I loved it. I loved the enthusiasm of the performers and their desire to create an old-time “turn out the lights” radio show. I loved the cheesy Elektra Records sound effects – I had the same LP’s. I loved the dialog; I loved the dialects; I loved the confusion of it all. Oh, and one other thing.
It really, really was scary. It has the non-linear qualities of a bad dream. It creates vivid pictures. If pressed, I could describe every location and every character. Give Judson a chance to work on your brain through your ears, and your brain will never be the same. And I mean that in a good way.
So, just in time for Halloween, here is Judson’s The Old Woman of Haunted House. (16m)
