Myshkin's Ruby Warble

Plenty of genres at Plenty
by Tony Engelhart
Jan 17, 2007

Anyone who pushes the boundaries while successfully creating her own distinctive sound is all right in my book — and the weirder the better. Self-described as dark jazz roots music, Myshkin is one artist who gets a high recommendation from me.  With a moody timbre, the New Orleans native draws from an abundance of musical styles including folk, rock, jazz, cabaret, blues, and Eastern European gypsy music.  Lyrically, this singer/songwriter is politically poignant while still creating equally sophisticated ethereal poetry as well as being culturally astute.  After recording and touring as a solo artist throughout much of 1990s, she met multi-instrumentalist Sailor Banks and recorded Rosebud Bullets in 2002 as Myshkin’s Ruby Warblers, which featured stripped down and organic compositions with Celtic and gypsy overtones coupled with a sprinkling of smoky folk-jazz noir tracks. The duo’s next outing, Corvidae, came two years later and proved to be a bit more experimental as they often sounded like Rickie Lee Jones meets Billie Holiday meets Cowboy Junkies.  In 2005 the band was cemented as a whole with the arrival of drummer Leila Chieko, whose hypnotic percussion style lends itself well to the languid tempo of the band’s music. Still Louisianan at heart, the group’s latest release, Sigh Semaphore, will benefit Hurricane Katrina victims.
[Plenty! Restaurant, Jan. 20, 8 p.m., $8, 200 W. Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.705.3716’

User comments

Comment on this article