The State (Columbia, SC)
June 6, 2007

Feature Article
By OTIS R. TAYLOR JR.

FRIEDMAN EVOLVES FROM GRUMBLING POET TO RAMBLING SINGER

Andy Friedman is a folk legend — at least at Hunter-Gatherer. He quite possibly is the only performer to throw a shoe at someone in the audience there.

“I had a shoe thrown at me,” said Friedman, a New Yorker, correcting the tale. “Now I throw one every time I’m there, and it usually hits (local musician) Tom Hall.”

And this is where the legend begins.

Friedman, who has performed in Columbia three times, has done something different at each show. At tonight’s performance, you’ll hear a songwriter who has blossomed into an alt-country and folk balladeer, which is something more than the poet who incited the shoe incident.

At that Hunter-Gatherer show, with projected slides as a backdrop, Friedman grumbled words he thought went with the pictures.

“It was a really drunk late night in a bar, and people were into it and some weren’t,” he recalled recently. “And someone threw a shoe.

“I’m fine with hecklers, and they cause me to do things I don’t normally do.”

But that night — or maybe it was the moment — got to Friedman.

“It was a sensitive moment, not that I need quiet,” Friedman said. “This guy was saying I was a ripoff.”

The guy said Friedman was aping Daniel Johnson and David Berman, obscure songwriters Friedman “hadn’t heard of at the time.”

“I kind of exploded and challenged him to arm wrestle,” Friedman said. “And he came down.

“That’s sort of my bar trick. I told him if he broke my 90-degree angle, I would leave.”

Friedman didn’t have to leave. And now he’s back again. This time he’s singing with a backing band, The Other Failures.

Friedman’s music is a mix of country, rockabilly and folk; “Taken Man,” his new CD, has been lauded by critics in publications such as The New Yorker and Time Out New York. The stories in songs such as “White Knuckle Death” don’t wind like poetry — they head straight for you.

For Friedman, the progression from grumbling poet to rambling singer has been satisfying.

“As an artist, you’re always evolving,” he said. “I feel like I want to do this for the next 20 years. I’m not interested in figuring out the next thing.”

He’s become something of a rock star now, albeit on an indie scale.

“I get up on stage and sing my songs and hopefully someone will get something out of it,” Friedman said. “If not, I have a good time.”

And he might take home a shoe.

IF YOU GO

Andy Friedman & The Other Failures

WHEN: 11 tonight

WHERE: Hunter-Gatherer, 900 Main St.

TICKETS: $5

INFORMATION: (803) 748-0540