Fair Use Notice
No. Not yet. The original members of the band are working together towards reissuing 4 of the groups albums on CD. This project is currently in the works. Seriously, really, it is this time! To get details on the re-releases of these classic albums, sign up for our e-mail list on the left hand side of this site's pages. As soon as we hear something, we'll let you know.
Did the band members set up this site?
No, they didn't. TheJudys.com is not officially endorsed by the band or any of its members. They do know we're here, and they know who we are, and I'm told that they even visit the site from time to time, but this site is not an official extension of the band. This site started as a little web page hosted on AOL back in September of 1996, and after a couple of moves has grown to its own domain - TheJudys.com.
If you're not a band member, then who runs this thing?
I do. My name is Michael Wilson. I'm just a fan of the band in the classic sense of the term (fan, being short for "fanatic"). I grew up in the small Houston suburb of Humble, Texas, graduated from Humble High School in 1987, and have since moved to Nashville, Tennessee where I now reside with my wife and three children. I've spent most of my life making a living as a broadcaster working for KSBJ, KKBQ, KPFT, and a fistfull of other stations in the Houston area, and WAY-FM, WSIX, Lite-93, and several others while here in Nashville. In February of 1995 I started a business on the side just for fun designing interactive CD-ROM presentations. My little venture grew into a full-time endeavor in April of 1999. Having now left radio totally behind, I currently own and operate "Mad Dancer Media" (http://maddancer.com) which specializes in producing Enhanced CD's, web sites, Shockwave video games, screen savers, and several other "new media" related products.
How do you know the band?
I don't. As I mentioned earlier, I'm simply a fan. While living in Texas, I attended every Judy's show I possibly could and bought every album I could lay my hands on. I've met David Bean and Jeffrey Walton in passing many years ago and even interviewed David for a radio show I used to do, but I'm not a close personal friend of the band. There are many people who visit this site that attended high school with the band who have some pretty fun stories about the guys, but I was never privileged enough to know the band personally.
Where'd you come up with all this Judy's stuff?
A lot of it is from my personal collection. The really rare stuff came from the users of this web site who were kind enough to send it to me to make available here. Guys like Karl Paetzel, Marco DuBose, Ken Lieck, H.B. Agnew, and several others have made this site what it is. Their contributions of music, video, and trivia are truly priceless.
Do you make any money from this web site?
None. In fact, this site actually costs me money each month. Even though I own the web server on which this site resides, I still have to pay for the data that is consumed by the large audio and video files that are downloaded en masse each month. TheJudys.com rates among Mad Dancer Media's top consumers of bandwidth - not because of a massive number of visitors, but because of the extensive audio archive we maintain online. The site streams out several gigabytes of data each month, and we've spent several thousand dollars worth of man hours developing this page, but I don't really mind. My needs are met, my company is doing well, and I have a heck of a lot of fun doing this site. It might not be the most economical way to run my business, but being the big Judy's fan that I am, I am delighted to be able to offer this site as a service to other fans. Knowing that it's pretty much impossible to obtain this material anywhere today, and realizing that The Judy's played such a large part in the lives of so many Texans of my generation, I consider it an honor to be able to offer this service. As long as the band themselves offer no objections to the site, and as long as I am financially able to do so, I'll offer as much Judy's material as I can here.
Why not use banner ads to help pay for the site?
I am attempting to avoid the use of banner ads to underwrite the cost of this site because I do not want to be accused of trying to profit from it financially in any way. If anyone receives any financial compensation from TheJudys.com, it should be the band themselves - not me. If bandwidth costs ever exceed the amount that I'm able to pay out of my own pocket, then I may enlist in a banner program of some sorts to help cover these expenses, but I would like to try to avoid that if at all possible. For this reason, I'd ask you to be mindful of this when downloading the files from the site. Feel free to take anything you like, but please be courteous in your usage.
Where can I buy The Judy's music?
In a nutshell, you can't. There are certain exceptions to this rule, however. Occasionally, you may find a copy of "Washarama" or "Moo" for sale in a used record shop in Houston or Austin (and if you do, make sure you snatch it up while you can). Generally, however, the answer to this question is that The Judy's music has been out of print for many, many years. For this reason, it is impossible to order their music from any music store chain.
Can I get The Judy's music on CD?
The Judy's released one project, their final album "Land of Plenty", on CD. Other than that, none of their projects have been released on Compact Disc. There has been talk for several years of reissuing some of The Judy's classic material on CD, but that project has been put on the back burner by the band. From what I gather, the Judy's CD reissue is more or less an idea that David Bean works on whenever he's in the mood. In the mid nineties, a CD reissue was close to happening, but legend has it that the person who the band hired to do their artwork packaging more or less skipped town with the artwork for the reissue. This set the project back quite a way, and new packaging has never been recreated.
Can I have them play a private party?
I'm not quite sure why, but I still receive this question quite frequently. The Judy's broke up around 1992, shortly after the release of Land of Plenty. They played a reunion show at a club in Austin in the mid nineties, but that was the last known appearance of The Judy's. While it would be a dream come true for many, the band has no current intentions of reforming.
Where is singer, guitarist, primary songwriter and keyboardist, David Bean now?
David is a "Watsu" water massage therapist in the Houston area.
Where is bassist and vocalist Jeff Walton now?
Jeff Walton is currently writing music for film and commercials. He even has his own an IMDB entry. He makes his home in the Houston Heights with his family.
Where is drummer Dane Cessac now?
Dane opened a restaurant in the Clear Lake area and has since sold it and moved to Austin, TX. He is rumored to be playing in and around Austin in a band called "PurpleRoom".
What about some of the other people that played with The Judy's over the years?
At this time, we're only aware of the current happenings of a couple of former band members. Drummer Darwin Keys who played with The Judy's for quite awhile in the late 80's after Dane left the group and also appeared on their final project, "Land of Plenty" currently plays with the band "Pushmonkey". Barbara Donaho remains in the Houston area and currently works in the administrative side of the music industry. The whereabouts of other band members like Lee Malone, Scott Krchnak and Matthew McCarthy. are currently unknown.
Will you sell me your records?
I think the answer here is pretty obvious.
Will you make me copies of your albums?
No.
I noticed that you removed all the MP3 files. This web site was the only place that the public could get decent quality recordings of those songs. Will the MP3's ever be back?
Probably not. First, and most importantly, it gave me the willies when I would think about having the MP3's up on the site. I mean, I refuse to make copies of my Judy's albums for people because I don't want to infringe on the band's copyrights, yet I'd place them online in MP3 format for anyone to grab and burn to CD. No matter how you look at it, distribution of MP3 files without the permission of the copyright owner is just plain illegal. Not to mention the massive amounts of bandwidth that the MP3 leechers consumed. Frequently, users would just suck the MP3 directory dry with no regard for what they were grabbing or the resources this leeching would consume. When my bandwidth bills for thejudys.com came to over $100 one month (when the site was nothing more than a splash page and an mp3 directory), I decided that it was time to take the plunge and remove all the MP3's from the site. The songs are available in Real Audio 28.8 format so people can still listen to them, but the audio quality will now be no threat to the copyright holders, and I can now stand on the "Fair Use" copyright policy in distributing them. Most record companies (even the major labels) are fine with low-quality audio samples being redistributed by fan sites. TheJudys.Com is now on much safer ground because of the switch.
I still have questions. Who do I ask?
You can try asking me. I can't promise I'll be able to help, but would love to hear from you anyway: Michael.Wilson@TheJudys.com.