At an early age, Scott Hudson realized he could never achieve his dream to become a rock star. He couldn’t play guitar like Jimmy Page. He couldn’t write songs like Bob Dylan. He certainly didn’t have moves like Jagger, and he could never drink like The Replacements…although on occasion he was known to try to emulate them.
Instead, Hudson focused on learning as much as he could about rock and roll. His record collection began at the tender age of four, and sixty years later is still growing by the week. The boxes of books, magazines, and other memorabilia stacked in his basement attests to the fact that it was always about more than the actual music. It was a lifestyle.
Hudson utilized this never-ending quest for knowledge to take almost any music-related gig he could find. He started working in record stores at the age of 16, first at Budget Tapes & Records, and later at Ernie November (where he is currently once again behind the counter a few hours a week). His first act as a freshman at Augustana was to get a time slot on KAUR, where he was eventually music director and continued to do shows for a full 15 years after graduation. There was also a two year stint as a club DJ at Nite City, and in 1987 he had the pleasure of helping bring his favorite band ever, The Replacements, to Sioux Falls for a legendary show at the Coliseum.
Some time in the late 80s, Hudson sent a letter to the publishers of a new publication, Tempest, offering his services as a music writer. For close to fifteen years, Hudson documented the Sioux Falls music scene. This was the perfect era for a budding music journalist as the 90s were a magical time as all genres of music found a giant welcome mat at the city’s borders. From all-ages punk shows to Arena act superstars, Hudson profiled a wide variety of artists representing almost all genres (along with a few comedians and actors). Local artists were also thriving during this time period, and Hudson documented the music careers of favorites such as Violet, Janitor Bob & The Armchair Cowboys, The Harvesters, and Kory & The Fireflies.
After leaving Tempest in 2001, Hudson contributed to Prime and Etc. For Her magazines, created his Rant a Bit blog, and did a weekly tongue in cheek segment on KRRO called Get Out of Town. In 2010, the Argus Leader brought him on to once again interview artists appearing in our fine city. This coincided with another boom in the local music scene, and Hudson was thrilled to again be chatting with musicians during this five year run.
Hudson left the Argus Leader in 2017, and since then has been concentrating on his weekly internet radio show, The Ledge, which is about to celebrate its 750th episode. He’s also been an executive producer on a number of music documentaries created by his friend Gorman Bechard, including films on The Replacements, Grant Hart, and Lydia Loveless. He’s also in the early stages of creating another podcast where he can once again do what he loves best - talking music with musicians.
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