The legendary outsider psych-folk musician, painter and poet Ed Askew passed away at the weekend (4th January 2025), he was 84 years old.
Ed released his first album, Ask the Unicorn, in 1968 after graduating from Yale. He became a well-known face thanks to his performances at poetry events and his unusual choice of instrument, a tiple, which was similar in size to a baritone ukulele and had ten steel strings in four courses. The album has been described as an “acid folk” masterpiece and one of the most singular releases from the infamous and historic ESP-Disk catalogue.
Ed Askew from a 1986 public access channel show (playing his Martin tiple).
On moving to New York he began to play Greenwich Village where he met Bernard Stollman the founder of New York based experimental, avant-garde, and free-jazz label ESP Disk (Pearls Before Swine, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler). The album was unlike anything else at the time but soon disappeared into folk-psych obscurity and the label folded in 1974. The album was never marketed properly and his follow-up Little Eyes stayed in the label vaults until it was later released on CD and Album in 2002/2003 via De Stijl that included liner notes by Byron Coley.
Ask the Unicorn was reissued by Tin Angel in 2015 (remastered from the original pressing by Jessica Thompson) on the white vinyl Askew originally requested. The cover is a photo of the protests in Stamford following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 2011, at the age of 71, Ed decided to tour the US for the first time in support of the limited vinyl/ digital re-release of the 80’s era cassette tape Imperfiction. Ed was accompanied on piano by Jay Pluck and travelled with tour mates, The Black Swans.
Two weeks later, as a result of the tour, it was decided that Jerry DeCicca of the Black Swans and producer of the final recordings of Larry Jon Wilson (Drag City/ 1965 Records), would assist Ed in making a record. Down the street from the Cotton Club, they spent a week in a West Harlem warehouse that September. Ed Askew was joined by Jay Pluck, two members of The Black Swans’ Tyler Evans (banjo, tiple, electric guitar– and now a permanent member of Ed’s entourage), Canaan Faulkner (bass) and Eve Searls (backing vocals), along with Mary Lattimore on harp. Later on, electric guitar was added by fellow outsider Marc Ribot and backing vocals on 3 songs by super fan Sharon Van Etten.
The results of those sessions were to become the album For The World, released in 2013 on Tin Angel Records.
Take Away Show for La Blogotheque with Diane Cluck:
In 2014, Ed released the excellent ‘Rose’, a double 10″ album released on Okraina Records, featuring sessions with Joshua Burkett and Steve Gunn. It opened to the title track of his 2002/2003 album Little Eyes:
The album included two spoken tracks in which Ed talked about his albums and influences.
In 2017, Drag City teamed up with Galactic Zoo Disk! to release ‘A Child In the Sun: Radio Sessions 1969-1970’. The album was from four unearthed reels of recordings of radio sessions of songs from Ed’s first two albums Ask the Unicorn and Little Eyes (including a previously unreleased track). The tapes were meticulously studied and the best versions extracted for the release, some perhaps even more gorgeous than the originals. Take a listen to Marigolds below. This version still features Ed playing his signature tiple.
In 2020 Ed released the seven-song EP 2020 which KLOF Mag’s Thomas Blake ranked among his best work and who also notes: There were three more EPs and a bunch of singles in 2019, all of them a similarly high quality, and his discography is beginning to resemble a hotel of many rooms, each one a little different from the last and each worth dwelling in for a while.
The same year, a collaboration with Trembing Bells was annouced and London was released on Tin Angel (19 June 2020). In his review, Thomas Blake outlined the album’s genesis: In 2017, Alex Neilson of the innovative psych-folk favourites Trembling Bells booked Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band and Ed Askew to join him for a Summer of Love Anniversary tour. Ed, along with pianist Jay Pluck, were frequently joined by the group onstage. The combo worked, and they decided to document it in the studio. The result is London, a wonderful six-song collection spanning Askew’s long career (and including two brand new songs) which was recorded by Owen Pratt in Hackney.
It included a recording of Tiny Eyes on which Blake shares: It’s full of poppy piano chords and a melancholy, melodic chorus that the Beatles would have been proud of and a combination of wandering harmonica and tight percussion that places it somewhere between Blonde on Blonde and The Basement Tapes.
He concludes: Askew’s career has been built on his ability to confound the structures that such a career would usually require. His arty pop songs about physical love and emotional attachment, travel and home, are full of brilliantly observed detail. In the Trembling Bells, those songs have found a match that is perhaps unexpected but nonetheless perfect. London is yet another indispensable document in a body of work that is always expanding in different directions, and if there were any justice in the world it would cement Askew’s place as one of our most valuable songwriters.
Among the many online tributes, Tin Angel shared:
“…it was a privilege to know you and your otherworldly music and art. You touched more hearts than you could ever have known.”
“Goodbye, Ed Askew. You were loved and always will be. Thank you for letting me be a part of your life & music. Producing For the World was an honor.”
and Drag City Records said:
“We’re sitting for a minute, silent, as we consider the passing of Ed Askew. A kind and thoughtful man is gone from our living ranks! A gifted writer, artist and singer whose works will go on to be discovered and loved in the world beyond us all, is certainly a consolation of some kind.
“Ed’s first album is a legend that continues to draw listeners in as it continues to grow, a legend born in the fire of his words and music. In his youth, Ed spoke – which is to say, sang – as a child, his plaintive warble and the chiming of his Martin tiple describing the world in a bedazzled and wondrous flow. Later, Ed spoke and sang as a man, but the heaven-struck quality never left his music.
“We consider ourselves lucky to have experienced Ed Askew in two phases – first as listeners and fans (of his eternal initial recordings – the 1968 ESP’disk release, Ask the Unicorn, and deStijl’s fantastic archival presentation of his unreleased second album, Little Eyes), and then later (via Galactic Zoo Disc) as collaborators. This allowed us to — however briefly — become acquainted with Ed; the memory of our conversations in that time, and his attentive and generous presence, will be an abiding one for the rest of our days. He was a real gentle man. Now that he’s gone, our thoughts are with his friends and family and the fans of his art and music. The ongoing process of gaining and loss is a grace note that will continue to honor his life well lived. Yet still, we must say goodbye, Ed Askew – knowing we’ll meet again, every time in this world that we encounter your beautiful sound.”
Ed Askew (Dec 1, 1940 – Jan 4, 2025)
Ed’s Bandcamp Page can be found here: https://edaskew.bandcamp.com/