Ed Askew, the late songwriter and visual artist, is being remembered with the release of his posthumous album, The Final Painting, which arrives this month.
Askew passed away at age 84.
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Throughout his life, Askew created roughly 50 records.
He balanced home recording with work as a house painter, art instructor, and welfare recipient before returning to the studio in 2011.
His producer and collaborator, Jerry David DeCicca, highlighted Askew's singular approach to music. Askew discovered the 10-stringed tiple in the 1950s, which shaped his unique sound.
Contemporary artists including Sharon Van Etten, Steve Gunn, Trembling Bells, and Bill Callahan contributed to or toured with Askew over his career.
Callahan praised the primordial essence of Askew's compositions.
"There is a holy aspect to it – those piano chords constructed like sheets of diamond ice," Callahan said.
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"There is no trying in his music. It just is."
Early Life and Career
Askew studied painting at the Yale School of Art in the early 1960s before busking in New York's East Village in 1967.
Record label ESP-Disk released his self-titled debut in 1968.
His follow-up project, Little Eyes, was shelved until its eventual release in 2002.
Collaborator Jay Pluck noted that Askew was an early pioneer in psych-folk who openly wrote gay love songs as early as the 1960s.
Askew's track "Moon in the Mind" reached new audiences after appearing on the soundtrack for the Netflix series Baby Reindeer in 2024.
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The Final Painting serves as a tribute to Askew's enduring legacy as an outsider artist and musician.
