he has apparently been forgiven

December 8, 2011 1:00 PM

Ed Askew lost his martin tipple on a railroad platform 20 years ago. In 2009, someone returned it. Now he can play his classic freak-folk songs on it again. Though some of his best don't require any live accompaniment at all.

Ed Askew made some of the strangest folk music of the late 60s and 70s. By the 80s, he had disappeared (after recording some great new songs live in studio on a Cable Access TV show).


From a video on his Youtube Page, Ed explains what happened to him all those years ago, sort of.

Besides the many albums he's released himself on his Bandcamp page, Ed also re-released an album of his 70s recordings (interview and review), Imperfiction, on Drag City this year. His other two early records, Ask The Unicorn and Little Eyes, are available for buying, if you want.

Some Songs from various times in his career:
Recent--
A Woman On A Swing
A Death In Indiana
The Accordion Man
Ashes and Embers
Real Train
Untitled Song

Older--
I Used to Live Here
Angles Will Kiss You
Missing You
Dark Horse
Satellites

Old
OLD MOTHER MOON OLD FATHER SKIES
Fancy That
My Love Is A Red Rose
Jeffrey Taste
Hitchhiking

Ed's blogspot

posted by Potomac Avenue (13 comments total)

Wow, this guy is great. Even more great to me is discovering that there's a whole history to this instrument I wasn't aware of. Everybody I've ever met who played the "teee-pleh" was in a Mexican folk band or a "mariachi" band, though I've heard it's really a Puerto Rican thing. Never heard it called a "tipple" before, but this is really neat.
posted by koeselitz at 1:15 PM on December 8, 2011

Ed Askew lost his martin tipple on a railroad platform 20 years ago. In 2009, someone returned it.

At first I thought "martin tipple" was an euphemism for a body part and went "ouch!" and "aww...? I guess?" respectively at the first two sentences.
posted by kmz at 1:20 PM on December 8, 2011

It's spelled "tiple," not "tipple." And yes, it's pronounced "tee-play."
posted by yoink at 1:20 PM on December 8, 2011

whoa, how did I miss the correct spelling on like 4 checks. Oh well, at least the tag is correct!
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:22 PM on December 8, 2011

Not remotely important, PA, given that Askew does pronounce it tipple. And this is a great post. I really like the fact that for such a multi-multi-multi link post you can pretty readily tell what each link will lead to. I had those posts that put a link on every word and you have no idea where the nut of the story is meant to be or whether you're just going to end up on some Wikipedia page explaining what a "fork" is.
posted by yoink at 1:27 PM on December 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

I read this as martini tipple, which makes more sense to my brain.
posted by found missing at 1:30 PM on December 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

*triple
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:31 PM on December 8, 2011

What is a "martin tiple"?
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 1:52 PM on December 8, 2011

It's a tiple made by Martin.
posted by yoink at 1:53 PM on December 8, 2011 [1 favorite]

Came for the "tiple, not tipple" correction. Leaving by mentioning that I have my grandfather's (great grandfather's?) tiple.
posted by lothar at 2:03 PM on December 8, 2011

I was so embarrassed by having my grandfather's tiple, I had to get an exemption from gym class.
posted by found missing at 2:15 PM on December 8, 2011 [2 favorites]

AFAIK, Martin's tiple is often pronounced "tipple" by a lot of folks, at least in the US. The instrument itself is unusual for Martin, and seems to be their take on some Latin American folk instrument, perhaps an actual tiple from some region. Which region is unclear, since Latin American folk guitar-like instruments vary widely, from country to country, region to region. Names don't mean much unless one adds where it's from. As such, you'll find tiples (and cuatros, requintos, etc.) from one region that are completely different than tiples from another.

I'd be curious how Martin, of all companies, decided to make the tiple a part of their lineup. It's pretty rare that they ventured far from their bread and butter instruments.

Anyhow, good post.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:11 PM on December 8, 2011

It is a unique joy to see Ed Askew perform... he is just so good. Glad to see him mentioned here on Metafilter...
posted by thegreatfleecircus at 7:51 PM on December 8, 2011