Gambit Weekly
New Orleans
4/30/02
Myshkin's Ruby Warblers
Rosebud Bullets
(Double Salt Records)
by David Lee Simmons

"I dream of the northern coast," Myshkin chirps on "Northern Coast," the closing track of her Ruby Warblers project, Rosebud Bullets. "I dream of the cliffy coast/ I see jumping women floating down/ Gowns that match the spray and foam/ All the strings swell as the credits roll ... ."

And with the clank of a gate, and the lament of a fiddle, Myshkin closes the chapter of what may be her best album yet, and her stay in New Orleans. After about a decade of finely crafted, genre-bending folk songs and collaborations with Mike West, Myshkin will pack her bags this summer and shove off to Portland. Why? Pick up a copy of Rosebud Bullets and find out for yourself. This travelogue of discovery, desire and disconnection provides all the clues for an artist who, despite her wondrous imagery and songbird of a voice (and countless Big Easy Award nominations), was never fully appreciated in the cradle of jazz.

But Rosebud Bullets isn't about the limits of New Orleans; it's about the possibilities that await outside. "I let my halo go/ Here in San Diego," she sings on "Cities," adding, "And goddess knows it feels right/ Here in the city of you/ What was heavy is light/ Say goodbye to the night." The album is marked by these moments of transition, urged along by Myshkin's backing band of drummer Scott Magee, bassist John Lutz, fiddler Neti Vaan, clarinetist Ben Schenck and pianist Christopher Trapani, with old friend Laura Freeman on harmonica.

Rosebud Bullets is everything 2000's free-for-all Why Do All the Cowgirls Leave? wasn't, a focused gem that Myshkin can take with her to the Pacific Northwest, and leave behind with her fans -- both old and very new.