Hmm... Ed Askew

The announcement of the posthumous album *The Final Painting* marks a heavy pivot for the legacy of the Greenwich Village folk outlier. The lead single, “Gray Air-o-Plane,” features Sharon Van Etten—a high-profile endorsement that signals a shift from cult obscurity to a broader retrospective appreciation. Askew’s 1968 debut was a blueprint for the ‘freak-folk’ movement decades before the term existed. This final collection, recorded shortly before his 2023 passing, suggests a coordinated effort to cement his place in the American avant-folk canon rather than letting him remain a footnote.