Music
Press
“Andy Friedman belts out country songs about love, highways, booze, and painting with a growl that’s unexpectedly tender. His first studio album, ‘Taken Man,’ proves that beauty doesn’t have to be pretty.”
- The New Yorker
"Andy Friedman, a Brooklyn cartoonist (for The New Yorker, among others) and hardscrabble singer-songwriter, recently released 'Taken Man' (City Salvage), an album of ten often funny songs (see 'I Don't Want To Die Like Andy Kaufman' and 'Guys Like Me Don't Get Grants'). On the cover of his disc, Friedman is clearly betting the rent money on a game of Skee-Ball -- in other words, these are songs for those who wash down life's knuckle sandwiches with ice-cold despair." - Time Out New York
"He may sound like Lou Reed channeling a Bob Dylan head cold, and plays old school country so worn down even the ruts have ruts, but this is no nostalgia or novelty act. In the end, [Friedman's songs] work because they're both clever and poignant enough that you won't care if he is playing Strauss waltzes on a Jew's harp and sings like Roseanne Barr." - Creative Loafing
"The appeal of Friedman's music is his ability to write simple and evocative songs in an age where vague, abstract themes often dominate. . .It's not country in the Willie Nelson/Johnny Cash vein, but it's no less country music. . .'Taken Man' shows a great deal of promise and could propel Friedman. . .into the annals of American music." - Oxford Town
"Can you imagine a New Yorker cartoonist growling and singing? Even if you can, Andy Friedman will transcend your imaginings. . .Song titles such as "I Don't Want To Die Like Andy Kaufman" and "Guys Like Me Don't Get Grants" should tell you all you need to know." - Birmingham Weekly
"The New Yorker cartoonist-turned-art-country-troublemaker has the hootin' hollerin' carryin' on spirit of Hank Williams and Merle Haggard spliced into his twangy acoustic chords and lonesome lap steel lines. . .Friedman's so distinctly (and yet so eruditely) redneck, you'd never guess he was from Brooklyn." - Columbia Free Times
Discography
Drawings & Other Failures (art/poetry book, City Salvage Records) 2001; Future Blues (art/poetry book, City Salvage Records) 2003; Live at the Bowery Poetry Club (CD, City Salvage Records) 2006; Taken Man (CD, City Salvage Records) current, 2006.
Photos
Bio
The Brooklyn-based visual artist and songwriter Andy Friedman has made a name for himself over the last five years as a genre-bending, media-blending "erudite redneck" (BOSTON GLOBE), "winning over audiences" (SF WEEKLY) with his "art-edged folk song" (NEW YORKER).
Friedman's first studio album, "Taken Man" (City Salvage Records), presents ambitious new songs about art, wild dreams, and wanderlust. Produced by longtime crony, songwriter/guitarist, and label-mate Paul Curreri, the songs on "Taken Man" are well-crafted, insightful, and infused with a stark wit. This makes sense coming from a songwriter who is also a New Yorker cartoonist.
In addition to Curreri, the album includes special guest appearances by Jeffrey Foucault, Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor, Devon Sproule, Natalia Zukerman, Kris Delmhorst, Melissa Ferrick and others.
The sound of Friedman's music is something between classic country and art-school indie. Friedman calls it "Art-Country," but one might also describe it as "Indie-Roadhouse." Paul Demko of the MINNEAPOLIS CITY PAGES dubbed Friedman "The King Of Art Country" and raves about the artist's "smart and engaging" lyrics. The songs are brave, free, and honest, exploring relationships between art, marriage, and wanderlust to great effect.
"'Taken Man' is an entertaining thought-provoking ride," says the popular music web blog SONGSILLINOIS.COM. "Friedman writes gems," proclaims the OBERLIN REVIEW.
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