CVILLE WEEKLY
October 17-23, 2006
ART/ROCK by Spencer Lathrop

ART/ROCK

From New Yorker illustrations to musical touring machine, Andy Friedman has covered a lot of ground

BY SPENCER LATHROP

Andy Friedman, painter and visual artist (he's a cartoonist for The New Yorker), and singer-songwriter, has a strong Charlottesville connection that runs through local folk star Paul Curreri. Curreri says that Friedman was such a serious art student at Pratt, in New York City, that he became disillusioned after a gum eraser battle broke out in a professor-free classroom, and ultimately transferred to the Rhode Island School of Design. Friedman and Curreri were roommates at RISD, and later in Brooklyn, New York.

An artist his whole life, Friedman used to merge his pursuits. "I wanted to follow my paintings around on the road, and so that became my stage show—with polaroids, slides and spoken word. And now I'm just so in love with music, and totally in love with playing with my band."

Friedman and his band, The Other Failures, will have an unofficial release of his second CD, Taken Man, this Wednesday at The Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar. Friedman says that, although he has probably played every room in Charlottesville, "the Tea Bazaar was so great [the last time], and I had such a good time there" that he chose the venue for his CD release. Friedman also enlisted the fiddle playing of Ketch Secor from Old Crow Medicine Show, and other locals, like Curreri, for the new disc.

Friedman and Curreri laid down the basic tracks for the CD in two and a half days in Curreri's home studio. Curreri, not normally a gusher, says, "It is an amazing record."

Friedman regards Charlottesville as his "gateway to the rest of the world"—he always makes sure to include an in-town date at the beginning or end of his tours. He plays 60 to 70 dates a year, and says that part of the reason he loves touring is that he gets to listen to music all day and eat at Denny's in strange towns.