Ed Askew, a Connecticut-born songwriter and visual artist who spent decades working largely outside the mainstream music industry, died at age 84 with his final album poised for release. The Final Painting, produced by longtime collaborator Jerry David DeCicca, arrives this month through Drag City Records and features vocal contributions from established artists including Sharon Van Etten and Bill Callahan.
Askew’s musical journey began in the 1950s when he discovered the tiple, a 10-stringed instrument that became central to his compositional voice. After studying painting at Yale School of Art in the early 1960s, he moved to New York and performed in folk venues in 1967, eventually catching the attention of ESP-Disk Records, which released his 1968 self-titled debut. A planned follow-up was shelved for decades, not seeing official release until 2002.
Throughout his lifetime, Askew produced approximately 50 albums through various labels, archival releases, and self-published works, largely self-funded through house painting, art teaching, and periods of welfare assistance. His baroque songwriting style draws comparisons to visual artists like Cézanne and writers like Joe Brainard and García Lorca more readily than to musical contemporaries. His work is characterized by observational lyrics spanning from mundane details to significant historical moments, with an impressionistic quality that resists straightforward interpretation.
Askew’s influence has grown in recent years among contemporary musicians including Bill Callahan, Sharon Van Etten, Steve Gunn, and Glasgow-based Trembling Bells. Callahan describes a “primordial” quality in Askew’s compositions, noting the distinctive construction of his piano chords. One of Askew’s songs, Moon in the Mind, appeared on the soundtrack of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer in 2024. Collaborator Jay Pluck has highlighted Askew’s pioneering approach to openly gay love songs in the 1960s, a significant but largely unrecognized aspect of his catalog.
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