COLUMBIA FREE TIMES
October 18-24, 2006

The first time Friedman came to the Capital City, someone threw a shoe at him and arm-wrestled him on stage. His second time here, Friedman threw the shoe back. Suffice it to say, 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 guitar lines. And despite lyrical themes involving Andy Kaufman, self-portraits and failing to get artistic grants, Friedman's so distinctly (and yet so eruditely) redneck, you'd never guess he was from Long Island.