Posthumous Ed Askew album The Final Painting to feature Bill Callahan and Sharon Van Etten

The late cult folk singer and visual artist Ed Askew will be celebrated with The Final Painting, a posthumous album due 31 July via Drag City. The announcement remains one of the strongest current indie-folk stories going into 20 May because of the names involved and the emotional setting of the project.

The album was made with producer Jerry David DeCicca from demos Askew recorded in his apartment between 2020 and his death in January 2025. That gives the project a deeply intimate frame: these are late-period songs from an artist whose work always existed a little outside the usual folk canon, now being carried forward by admirers and collaborators.

The Final Painting features contributions from Bill Callahan, William Tyler and others, while Sharon Van Etten sings backing vocals on the single Gray Air-o-Plane. The tracklist includes Winter Song, Bacon & Eggs, Long Night, Lost in the Kitchen, A Train is a Thought, Gray Air-o-Plane, Someone, Tough Guys and Nightengale.

Askew’s music has often been described as outsider folk, but that phrase can undersell how tender, peculiar and emotionally direct his songs could be. The title The Final Painting also matters because Askew was a visual artist as well as a musician. This release feels less like a conventional archive item and more like one last room of images, songs and voices being opened for listeners.