Andy Friedman began in the world of art and illustration, and later moved into music. Born in Brooklyn, he graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a B.F.A. in painting. He started work in the mailroom of The New Yorker in August 1998 and began slipping his own cartoons in among the submissions; eventually, the magazine started buying them, and they were published under the pseudonym Larry Hat. Friedman built up a career as a freelance illustrator. In the spring of 2002, he left The New Yorker and began performing on-stage with a show that combined his spoken word poetry and his artwork displayed by a slide projector. Meanwhile, he had begun doing illustrations for albums by such artists as Debbie Friedman, Natalia Zuckerman, Devon Sproule, and Paul Curreri. He recorded his own debut album, Live at the Bowery Poetry Club, in July 2005, and it was released by City Salvage on February 15, 2006. Taking up the guitar and singing, he then recorded his first studio album, Taken Man, released on June 4, 2007. Weary Things followed on January 27, 2009. ~ William Ruhlmann