Time stands stunningly still on The Final Painting, the dreamy, elegiac final album from legendary underground singer-songwriter/poet/painter Ed Askew. Out July 31, his posthumous album is a bracing meditation on gay romance and the slow shuffle off our mortal coil, made in the last years of his life with producer Jerry David DeCicca (who worked with Ed on 2013’s For the World). The first single, “Gray Air-o-Plane,” releases today with a music video; the song features guest vocals by Sharon Van Etten.

A storytelling songwriter, Ed sends out “Gray Air-o-Plane” with the seasoned delivery of an old poet. His vocal fallibility is a rich aspect of his music, opening the song with immediacy and intimacy: "What do I care about / in the blue sky? And after a lifetime of love / why do I cry?" DeCicca’s production supports Ed with unique color choices: guitar loops, conga, tenor saxophone, and Sharon Van Etten’s backing vocals. The song is a visceral communication from Ed, flush with humanity and humility as always. The Jake Housh-assembled music video frames the song with images of Ed's paintings, depicting a city coated in nightfall.

Ed Askew started his music career in 1968 with a self-titled LP release on ESP-Disk', an album known today as Ask the Unicorn; it wasn’t until his lost second album Little Eyes was finally released in 2002 that his naïve songs and vocals began to receive the respect they deserved. By the time Ed turned 80 in 2020, his health was declining to the point that touring was impossible and even leaving his place was a challenge. Nonetheless, he continued to tape new songs in his Brooklyn apartment, posting them on his Bandcamp page — where DeCicca would hear them, inspiring thoughts of a new production. Ed was into the idea, forwarding nearly three dozen songs in different stages of completion to Jerry for the pair to plot a path forward. The Final Painting features past collaborators Sharon Van Etten, Eve Searls, and Canaan Faulkner, plus new guests Bill Callahan, William Tyler, Ryan Jewell, Dustin Laurenzi, Fulvio Sigurta, and Trevor Nikrant (Styrofoam Winos, Ryan Davis's Roadhouse Band).

The Final Painting is a wondrous variation on the intimacy of the self-portrait, a twilight expression from one of the most unique artists to emerge in the last half of the 20th century. Ed Askew's final album is out on July 31, 2026.