Critic's Picks

By J.R., Staff writer

SUNDAY, 22ND

Andy Friedman/Paul Curreri.

One of the week's must-see shows.

The most interesting blues mutation to evolve recently is the "Make A Living Tour," consisting of longtime friends and former Rhode Island School of Design classmates Andy Friedman and Paul Curreri.

"Blues…art students…uh-oh," we hear you saying, and normally we'd agree.

But Friedman, a New York-based artist whose cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker under the pseudonym Larry Hat, and Curreri, a singer-songwriter from Virginia, use the form more as a road map than a blueprint.

Using slides, drawings and photos from his haunting new books Future Blues, Friedman literally does the talking blues, spinning spoken-word dispatches and ramblings around his images.

Meanwhile, Curreri mixes mellifluous acoustic guitar, neo-beat poetry and Christ Whitley-style vocals on his lovely album Songs for Devon Sproule.

Poppy Fields open.