“A hot live act” (NPR) and “one of the most respected bands on the Brooklyn scene,” (CLEVELEND FREE TIMES) Andy Friedman & The Other Failures tour this fall in support of "Idaho," the first single from their forthcoming sophomore studio album, Weary Things, which will be released in January 2009 on City Salvage Records/Kindred Rhythm.   
 
He moonlights as a cartoonist for, most notably, The New Yorker, but the songs written by “hard scrabble singer-songwriter” (TIME OUT NEW YORK) and “erudite redneck” (BOSTON GLOBE) Andy Friedman aren’t written for laughs. "[Friedman] has a mastery of wordy self-loathing that many white dudes with guitars would kill for," says NASHVILLE SCENE.  "A veritable hoedown of cynical lyrics and tongue-in-cheek humor," adds AMERICANA U.K.
 
“An un-ironic country scene flourishes in Brooklyn,” wrote Mark Ferris in a recent issue of THE VILLAGE VOICE, who devoted a feature-length cover story about the borough’s burgeoning scene.  “Unlike in touristy Manhattan—once the site of Garth Brooks's Central Park lark,” wrote Ferris, “Brooklyn twang is as organic as fertilizer.  No poseur’s here. . .Most participants tend to be talented, intellectual, and eccentric.”
 
Nicknamed “Hillbilly Leonard Cohen” (ATHENS NEWS) and “The King of Art Country,” (MINNEAPOLIS CITY PAGES) Friedman is the embodiment of original Brooklyn country songwriting, presenting “fractured folk songs” (LOS ANGELES TIMES) that explore issues of art, wild dreams, and wanderlust, while celebrating “those who wash down life’s knuckle sandwiches with ice-cold despair” (TIME OUT NEW YORK). 
 
On the plaintive “Idaho,” Friedman longs to get back to some of his favorite wide-open spaces -- Idaho, New Mexico, and Colorado, to list a few -- but the responsibilities of work and family keep him home.  “I’m gonna get back there/if I ever get the time,” he sings.  The single's B-side, on the other hand, presents Friedman the guilty traveler.  "If you see me packing/There’s a good time to hide my keys,” he sings in the somber lullaby "Road Trippin' Daddy."  A devoted husband and father of two—Friedman is conflicted between feelings of regret when he's on the road, and defiance when he's not.  
 
Friedman has a penchant for grappling with the insecurities of love, domesticity, and marriage in his songs, and the title track to his 2006 debut album Taken Man found itself at #30 on the New York Post's "207 Best Songs To Download in 2007.”  "Devestatingly honest.  Brilliantly written," declared Mary Huhn.   “Every married man alive will relate.”  Other songwriters appearing on the extensive list included Amy Winehouse ("Rehab" #1), Neil Young ("Dirty Old Man" #65), and Bruce Springsteen ("Radio Nowhere" #114).
 
Shortly after headlining the 5th Annual Brooklyn Country Music Festival at Southpaw in Brooklyn this September, the band will embark on an twelve-city tour of the south with “new star” (Robert K. Oermann, MUSIC ROW) and fellow metro-roots fixture Amy Speace & The Tearjerks.  “The talented Ms. Speace,” writes THE VILLAGE VOICE, “is taking her Americana away from twangy contemplation toward tangy confrontation.”

 “This is a good bill,” says Friedman.  “New Yorkers like it when out-of-towners come up and visit, and we’re used to that.  But Amy and I are going to bring a piece of this scene on the road.”