Join us and 75 awesome authors and illustrators at The Hudson Children's Book Festival on Saturday, May 7th from 10:00AM to 3:00PM. The Hudson Children's Book Festival, established in 2009, strives to create, sustain, and nurture a culture of literacy in partnership with our community and schools. This free, public event fosters a love of reading as families meet and greet world-class creators of books for children of all ages. Returning luminaries include Jane Yolen and Mark Teague (the "How Do Dinosaurs" series), Bruce Degen (Magic School Bus), Sarah Mylnowski (Whatever After), Laurie Stolarz (Blue is for Nightmares), and James Preller (Scary Tales). New faces at the festival this year include Newbury winner Kwame Alexander (Booked and Crossover), Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall and Curiosity House), George O'Connor (The Olympians series of graphic novels), and Maira Kalman (famed artist and illustrator of picture books such as What Pete Ate). Please be sure to check their website (www.hudsonchildrensbookfestival.com) for a full list of authors and schedule of events. The size and quality of this event must be seen to be believed. The Spotty Dog is proud of our involvement with the book festival since 2009. Please come by!

Besides the core of guitar-bass-drums the band also incorporates the alto sax and vibraphone. Combine all that together and you’ve got some pretty unique sounds. Fans of the instrumental and rhythmic experimentation of bands like Rhyton and Horse Lords should look no further for their new favorite up-and-coming Brooklyn band. The band has been playing together for a couple years now with an intimate, blistering set full of songs off their new Castle Face Records LP (released late 2015). (The above is adapted from Eric PH’s post on NYCTaper.com)

Stuart Quimby has at any one time been a Classical and Jazz Composer, Professional Musician (flute, baroque instruments, slendro, blues and chromatic harp, and vocalist), Music Teacher, Network Analyst and Designer, Security Consultant, Geometer, Lecturer on Childhood Education, Applied Mathematician, Toy Manufacturer and Designer, Chef, Programmer, Restaurateur, Mechanical Engineer,and General Fool. Quimby has studied with Richard Davis, Les Thimmig, Roscoe Mitchell, and Robert Dick among many others. An abbreviated list of his credits include stints with Luther Allison, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Paquito D’Rivera, Vassar Clements, his own quartet, M.2.Q., as well as several well-known classical ensembles. Quimby has recorded on numerous albums over the years in multiple genres as well. He has spent almost four decades studying psycho-acoustics – especially microtonal tunings, and designing/building experimental instruments – including a guitar with movable frets, and an organ that plays 43 notes per octave. His articles on these subjects have been published in national peer-reviewed journals.

Hosted by Dani Grammerstorf French and Hallie Goodman, Volume is a monthly reading & music series featuring prose, poetry, followed by a DJ set. Volume occurs on the second Saturday of every month. May's Lineup includes: ALEX GILVARRY is the author of From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant and was selected as a “5 Under 35” nominee by the National Book Foundation. He is the recipient of a Norman Mailer fellowship and a 2012 New York City Book Award. JODI PALONI is the author of They Could Live With Themselves, a collection of stories linked by place. She was awarded the 2013 Short Story America Prize, second place in the 2012 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, and runner up in the 2015 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN is the author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, winner of the Bard Fiction Prize. Her work has been published in The Paris Review, Zoetrope, Harper's, n+1, and The Guardian. Her first short story collection, Intimations, comes out in September. Eliel Mamousette will be spinning records (or binary MP3 files) after the readings.

Matt Robidoux (b.New Hampshire,1985) is a Western Massachusetts based composer, guitarist, sound artist and not for profit concert promoter. He holds a B.A. in Music (Keene State College/Franklin Pierce University) where he studied classical guitar with Jose Lezcano and Scott Sanchez, improvisation with Scott Mullett and (post undergraduate) harmonic theory with Chris Weisman. As composer and improviser, Robidoux's work covers much aesthetic ground, from song and improvisation based textural/melodic guitar work to musical/nonmusical tape composition, sound collage and performance art, firmly rooted in the ethos and presentation of DIY/underground music. Current touring and recording collaborations include Curse Purse (Feeding Tube Records), Banjo Assault (New Edition Publications) Sunburned Hand of the Man (Three Lobed Recordings) and 23 Ensemble. He has performed throughout North America and Europe. Wehn we can find more information on the other lovely perfrmers, we will post it!

Brad Armstrong was a principal songwriter and producer of the critically successful and financially disastrous band 13ghosts, which released 6 full length albums between 2002 and 2012 with Birmingham-based Skybucket Records and Atlanta-based This Is American Music. After the other songwriter quit the band in 2008, Armstrong became the only writer in the band, and released two more albums of material before leaving the South in 2014. He moved his family to the Hudson Valley, in upstate New York, and finished mixing the record he had written and tracked in Birmingham. Jason Lucia (13ghosts, Heath Green and the Makeshifters) plays drums and Maria Taylor (Azure Ray, solo artist) sings harmonies and one lead vocal track. The rest of the album is performed by Armstrong, with the exception of Jason Taylor on double bass and Sue Nuckols on fiddle. The new album is called Empire. It is a diverse and experimental record, in keeping with the work that he did in 13ghosts, and was released January 26, 2016 on Cornelius Chapel Records. It has sync placements on ABC's Nashville and DirecTv's Kingdom. Armstrong has also been a contributing member of the Dexateens since 2008.

Stephen Bluhm's compelling music channels a myriad of time and style, including punk, songbook standards, synth pop, 60's girl groups and folk. The captivating amalgam is pop music but driven by imaginative arty twists both distinctive and singular. His compelling theatricality is enriched with Bluhm's captivating vocals and always catchy lyrical riffs. Stephen is a much-loved Hudson resident. ___ kayln rock is a Cusack romantic with a penchant for words that look good on paper. She grew up in Hudson, New York, in the house her Grandfather was raised in. As a child she would often be found walking around talking to herself, leaving the house without her shoes on, and crashing her bicycle. Heart Contagious, her sophomore EP through Black Hat Music, is a project she sees as a kid sister to previous, full length album Passenger. Like Passenger, the songs still carry a style of introspection by way of methodical pining, yet sonically, the tracks have a fuller, more whimsical sound thanks to the creative workings and execution of producer, Josh Cohen. Rock's bandmates, who she refers to as her "Handsome Band", Matt Girard (Bass, Horn) Justin Hofmann (Drums) and Josh Cohen (Keys, Guitar, Bass) join her on this project along with a special guest performance on the ending track, Soap, from Friendship and Stoobacca Dashiki of Boston based Dance band, The Hornitz. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" was Rock's mentality when choosing to collaborate with the talented Steve Mazur of Homegrown Mastering who also mastered Rock's previous project, Passenger. kayln hopes you enjoy her new project as well as come out her shows to see and hear how the new songs fit into the set. She likes her fans a lot. I know this because I am her.