Browse by Artist: ASKEW, ED

Artist:	ASKEW, ED
Title:	Little Eyes
Label:	DESTIJL
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	DESTIJL 032CD

First CD issue of this unreleased 2nd album, recorded in 1970. This was the intended follow-up to Ed's classic ESP-disk album, Ask the Unicorn from 1969. This CD adds 6 bonus tracks from radio sessions, 1970-71. Wow. "Ed Askew recorded Little Eyes in one continuous take during a brief, hot, hetero moment, 1970, New York City. Thirty-two years later, Destijl released it on LP. Made with little more than magnetic tape, Ed's voice, and the stunningly modern arrangements of his beloved Martin Tiple, Little Eyes is as grand, sad and beautiful a statement as can be expressed. His off-key lilt hangs like a seductive pink mist and settles deeply; you'll hear these songs long after they are over. Attempting to publicize an unreleased record, Ed did a string of radio gigs between New York and New Haven, and the best of them are collected here. Lovely and wild, this one is very near and dear to our hearts. Soon, yours too."

Artist:	ASKEW, ED
Title:	Ed Askew
Label:	ESP-DISK
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.50
Catalog #:	ESPDISK 1092CD

This version is on Bernard Stollman's ESP-Disk and is the same album as Ask the Unicorn, but not titled as such. Should you ask why? I guess not. As fate would have it, after 36 years of general neglect, two CD versions of Askew's classic debut album are released in the same week (the ESP/Abraxas version is ESPCD 1092). This ESP-Disk edition features 3 bonus tracks exclusive to this version, plus a booklet of lyrics not found on the other version. Originally released in 1969 & a pure ESP classic artifact -- this is simple folk music struck by a pure beam of cosmic light -- tremendously "in touch". "A graduate of Yale with a degree in painting and sculpture, the reclusive Ed Askew has won a following throughout the world, despite the lack of promotion and scarcity of his recordings. This intensely private, introspective album challenges conventional structure, while simultaneously reducing the folk form to its most pure and beautiful essence. Askew defies comparison. Digitally remastered." 'Easily one of the most bizarre and wonderful albums ever released by ESP-Disk ... a psychedelic folk masterpiece' -- Stewart Mason, All Music Guide. Track listing: "Fancy That," "Peter and David," "Marigolds," "Mr. Dream," "Red Woman -- Letter to England," "The Garden," "May Blossoms Be Praised,' '9-Song,' 'Love Is Everyone,' 'Ask The Unicorn." Also features three new tracks, selected by Ed Askew: "The Accordian Man," (an WYBC broadcast from 1970), "Green Song," (early 70s unreleased track) and "A Soldier's Song" (new song from 2005).

Artist:	ASKEW, ED
Title:	Rainy Day Song
Label:	SPINNING GOLD RECORDS (CANADA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	SGR 002CD

"Rainy Day Song is the first release of new Ed Askew material since Ed Askew/Ask the Unicorn (ESP-Disk, 1968). The scarcity of commercially available Ed Askew albums belies an artist in perpetual bloom -- painter and songwriter poet. After graduating from Yale Art School in 1966, Ed began teaching art in New Haven and shortly thereafter released his eponymous debut (later re-named Ask the Unicorn). Ed Askew recorded a follow up called Little Eyes that ESP-Disk chose, for unknown reasons, not to release (This album was finally issued on CD in 2007 by De Stijl Records). And now forty years have passed since the original ESP-Disk release and Ed Askew has a formidable backlog of unreleased music. Rainy Day Song, his most recent work, was recorded in the summer of 2007 in New York City, where Ed has lived since moving there from New Haven in the 1980s. He says: 'When I start a song it's a kind of virgin situation. There are certain things I do and I have my character like everybody has their character. But I believe on some level that it comes from nothing -- there are certain things you do -- but in a sense: who does it?' Lyrically, Askew bears a striking resemblance to Paul Goodman, the mid-20th century New York City poet, novelist, gestalt psychologist, and anarchist social theorist. Like Goodman's poetry, Askew's lyrics shift effortlessly from contemplative abstraction to political tirades, from naturalist landscapes to graphic descriptions of urban street life, from childhood vignettes to tales of gay romance-conveyed in language that's at once elegant and conversational. Also like Goodman, Askew displays (in both his lyrics and his music) a stubborn indifference to contemporary fashion. If that's what makes Askew's music such a hard sell for current labels and commercial audiences, it's also the source of its timelessness. Whether you choose to listen to it now or wait for the next round of 'reissues' forty years from now, this is music that will endure." --David Shirley

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