Roger Street Friedman is a critically acclaimed artist who has garnered features, album reviews, and video premieres in esteemed outlets such as Relix, American Songwriter, Goldmine Magazine, Bluegrass Situation, Americana Highways, The Boot, No Depression, Consequence of Sound, American Blues Scene, Americana UK, and Elmore. He is a literate lyricist with an empathic and insightful perspective that reveals the magic in the mundane aspects of everyday living.
Over the past decade, and during the course of four critically acclaimed albums, the modern Americana singer-songwriter has become a prominent voice in addressing issues both societal and personal in ways that recall the leading music lights of the ‘60s and ‘70s. On his new album, Long Shadows, Friedman trains his observant eye on recent and past events, some close to home and others half a world away, and in the tradition of other great storytellers, he focuses on raw emotions – love, anger, dismay, fear, isolation and ultimately, hope – in ways that make his points relatable to any listener.
Roger and his band have opened for Los Lobos and The Blind Boys of Alabama, performed at the Clearwater Folk Festival, Huntington Folk Festival, The Mile of Music Festival in Appleton, Wisconsin, and The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, and have toured up and down the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South and Southern California. Roger recently played a number of successful support slots for David Bromberg and his Quintet on a string of dates and recently completed a tour opening for Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams.
Roger Street Friedman is a singer, songwriter, activist, husband and a father of two, from Sea Cliff, NY. In 2017, Roger released the masterful album, Shoot The Moon. It’s a full-emotional spectrum collection of vivacious and reflective vignettes from real life that recalls the singer-songwriter tradition of Marc Cohn, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, Mark Knopfler and Robbie Robertson. In an age of irony, few songwriters are this brave in their vulnerability. The album received national airplay and reached #2 on the Roots Music Report’s Americana Album chart, where it spent over 25 weeks in the top 20. Roger’s song “Everyday,” which won second place in Unsigned Only 2019’s Americana category and honorable mention in Folk/Singer-Songwriter—is the first single from this album.
Critic Bill Bentley said, “[Roger] writes with the wisdom of someone who’s seen his share of living, and actually was savvy enough to take notes along the way…” and called Shoot The Moon “one of the best albums” of the year.
Previously, Friedman garnered acclaim for his debut, The Waiting Sky. Champions for the album included USA Today, No Depression, American Songwriter, Relix Magazine, MSN, The Alternate Route, Elmore Magazine and the New York Daily News. He’s toured regionally, performed on Today in Nashville, opened for such venerated artists as Los Lobos and The Blind Boys of Alabama and shared festival stages with Amy Helm and Dar Williams. For the past two years Roger has been dividing his time between New York and Nashville where he’s been writing and performing.
Roger teamed up with folk greats Tom Chapin, Guy Davis, Joel Rafael and Peter Yarrow on his track “Sun Never Sets,” which is a compelling protest song in support of all immigrants. He is using the song to raise awareness of and support for groups that provide legal, financial and educational assistance to immigrants and refugees.
In 2019, Roger performed at the Clearwater Festival, the Huntington Folk Festival and was a Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Grassy Hill Emerging Artist. He is a formal showcasing NERFA artist and his third full-length album, which was produced by Larry Campbell, will be released this spring.