Contact us
Back to All Posts

Roots music to take root at Tasting event for farm-friendly Hot Air Affair

The Hudson Hot Air Affair has a farm theme this year, and the fact that there will be a variety of rootin’ tootin’ music as well as tasting of many local products is no bull.
The longtime ballooning extravaganza running from Feb. 6-8 is sponsoring the Taste of Hot Air Affair, Field to Flight edition, as a fundraiser. It features sampling of spirits, wine and beer, along with decadent chocolates and cheeses, and is set for Saturday from 7:30-10 p.m. in the Chateau Room of the Hudson House Grand Hotel, 1616 Crestview Drive. Sponsors of this signature activity for the 26th annual launching event called Field to Flight, E-I-E-I-O, are 45th Parallel Spirits and the Villa Bellezza Winery, both local companies.
Music in this, the Taste’s third year will be provided by the Hunyuks, a River Falls area duo of Bill Gnatzig and Denny Thorsen. They cover diverse genres, from “rootsy fine old-time picking with vocals,” to country, classic country and down home music, and have been together for about seven years.
“We do a fair amount of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, with some of that old fun Roger Miller, Waylon Jennings, and occasionally throw in some ’50s and ’60s rock,” Gnatzig said.
The style of their show will be catered to the nature of the event. “We will tone down the volume so that people can visit and just let them enjoy themselves,” he said, adding that their guideline is creating “songs and smiles.”
The music for the Taste is compliments of the River Falls Roots and Bluegrass Festival, another large-scale event that has many bands and related attractions at numerous venues and hits their stages in April. That festival and an accompanying event in River Falls, the Bacon Bash, plan to march in the Torchlight Parade that will be held in downtown Hudson at 7 p.m. Friday. The parade will also feature music of another type, that of kazoo marching bands.
Proceeds from the Taste will go to the Hudson Area Backpack Program, a non-profit organization that distributes backpacks filled with groceries to families with elementary-age children in need.
Pre-sale tickets are $15 per person and those at the door are $20. They can be purchased at Hudson WESTconsin Credit Union, American Sky Brewery, Linda White Family Hair Care, or by calling (612) 360-3821, or emailing tamigirl1297@yahoo.com.
Also on the Hot Air Affair agenda is music at four participating sponsor locations, American Sky Brewing Co. and the Plaza Lounge/Hudson Bowling Center on the Hill, and Urban Olive and Vine and Dick’s Bar and Grill downtown.
Music acts at the Hangar Taproom of American Sky, at 1510 Swasey St. behind Fleet Farm, are Sasha Mercedes and DJ Rickert from 6-9 p.m. on Friday and Jambo Joe Bones at 5-8 p.m. Saturday.
In her online biography, Mercedes says her music “will make you think, break your heart and kick you in the gut all at once.” She has released more than six albums and the cover art on the latest, which was produced in its entirety in just three days, was created by Rickert, the drummer. She has shared the stage with the likes of songstress Tracy Bonham and folk musician Pete Seeger. Mercedes says her songs can be “cross-platformed to fit into just about any genre.”
Rickert has produced mixes based on the music of several artists, the most recognizable being Fatboy Slim. Both musicians have had plenty of exposure on You Tube.
Local favorite Jambo Joe Bones for years has hit many venues around the area with his laid-back, lets-have-a-party trop-rock that owes to Jimmy Buffett.
Urban Olive and Vine will feature a pair of very different performers. Jazz Savvy takes the stage on Friday and Mark Keating on Saturday. Both start at 7 p.m. Keating is a fingerstyle guitarist and singer inspired by players such as Leo Kottke, and has a background in playing many differing styles.
Rounding out the music options connected with the Hot Air Affair are deejay music at Dick’s Bar and Grill on Friday and Saturday starting at 10 p.m., which gives a chance to mingle with the pilots, and karaoke in an intimate setting at the bar at the Hudson Bowling Center on both nights, a venue not far from the Moonglow or Field of Fire that is set for Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
Other noteworthy Hot Air Affair events are balloon launches at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and at 3 p.m. on Saturday, all weather permitting, and smoosh boarding at 1 p.m. Saturday. All are at the Rock Elementary School grounds.
Visit www.hudsonhotairaffair.com for more information.

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, an inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
  • I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year.  So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...
Read More
Scroll to Top