Where Y'at Magazine 4/02
New Orleans
By Jes Burns
Myshkin's Ruby Warblers, Rosebud Bullets

Wow...I just can't think of any word more fitting to describe my feelings towards the new relase by Myshkin's Ruby Warblers. Wow... Rosebud Bullets is an amazing album.

The sound is rambling folk with touches of gypsy, rock, jazz, and an intangible that keeps me coming back for more. Myshkin does quite a bit of picking work in the lower register of the guitar, and this sets a dark tone for the album. Her voice is diverse, but has a signature warble that captures intense emotion like a tissue of tears. The warble is fitting, not just for conveyance of her music, but it completes the bird motif that pervades the album.

Though every track is worthy of mention in this review, space restrics me to a few favorites. Like all great bands (i.e. the Monkees), Rosebud Bullets includes a theme song. "Ruby Warbler" is a dark, nostalgic trip into the persona of a woman whose past is lost. "And I had a motto/ I'd try anything twice/ and if it was still hurtin' and wrong I'd keep trying/ 'til I got it hurting right." The song is lyrically tight and builds from a sad tip-toe to a frenzied, repetitive assault by violin and guitar. It's an exhausting trip.

"Cory Jo" is the track that best exemplifies the lower register guitar work. It is intense with forays into devotion, temporary insanity, and fear. "Giving me that look like you can read me like a braile book/ but are your fingers calloused hard?/ are we gonna wind up like that Texas man/ had the world's hardest hands/ like some fire had burned him up from inside/ for a long time?" This is the best translation of paranoia through music that I've ever heard.

The title track "Rosebud Bullets" is a slow dirge wrought with passion. "Happy Hollow" makes me happy, because I'm a sucker for a social message. It speaks to the potential evil of materialism and technology. Then there's "Unearthed" and "Annabelle" (Yee-haw! A song in seven-eight!) and "Big Wind" and "Rosie" and "Black Braids," a song like night on the edge of a hurricane. CURSE THE WORD LIMIT!

Truly, Rosebud Bullets is the most amazing album I've heard in years. Why don't moe people know about Myshkin? Myshkin's Ruby Warblers' CD release party is coming up may 1st at the Blue Nile. If the album is any indicator, it is bound to be an amazing show.