Get all 10 Myshkin Warbler releases available on Bandcamp and save 10%.
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Ravens (single), Peace (single), Trust and the High Wire, Faithless (single), That Diamond Lust, Sigh Semaphore, Corvidae, Rosebud Bullets, and 2 more.
1. |
Scarecrow
03:36
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Where does the road
Where does the road go?
Into the field
Dreaming in snow
What’s in the field
Fallow and cold?
A man made of earth
Warmest I know
Wheat for his calves
Corn to his thighs
Heart full of the dark dirt’s sorrow
Eyes made of the heat of July
Scarecrow
Scaring the bird so
Just the sort of fear
Draws her near
And come the spring
Will we burn the field?
A line of fire
Racing up the hill
A cutting wire
A cutting wheel
That’s the winter cutting me
Waiting for your hand to heal.
Where does the road
Where does the road go?
Into the field
Dreaming in snow
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2. |
Ruby Warbler
04:33
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I was really wild
Thought I knew how to act
Getting high in the bathroom and bored
in the red leather booths at jacks
And I rarely smiled
And I often laughed
At the way that the world and the war of love
Was kicking my ass
And I had a motto
I’d try anything twice
And if it was still hurting and wrong I’d keep trying
Till I got it hurting right
And I still dream of her
Girl I used to be
She’s still packing all the wrong things for the trip
Afraid to speak lest she let something slip
Out of orbit she’d fall and be calling
But the call of the wild no longer suits my ruby lips
I’m a ruby warbler
Don’t look so wild but I’m not tame
I’ll be here all the winter come summer
I’ll be somewhere cooler again
I’m a ruby warbler
And blood rich my song rings
With the trills and the clicking and ticking
Of time and waiting in the wings
In the wings
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3. |
King of Kankakee
04:10
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You were the king of Kankakee
Maybe the prince of all
You came so close to kissing me
You woke me up from my long sleep
Into an even longer fall
I lived aboard a sailing ship
The kindest mate I had yet met
Oh, but I was weary
Of scrubbing all those decks
Until they shone like a mirror
His image to reflect
So I jumped ship in the Saltan sea
I took up with a pirate girl
Hanging round her galley
Playing with our treasures
Diving in her shallows
For her perfect pearl
You were the king of Kankakee
You play the horses just like me
Pick a longshot for a winner
Slap your dollar on the counter
Throw your heart onto the track
To be all trampled into splinters
You bet your castle in the country
I wagered my house in town
My pirate girl did referee
She sees so clearly into me
Herself so caught between the sea
And settling down
Now I’m a thief outside your gate
Paralyzed any opening to take
For if I should find the crown
Would your whole castle tumble down
Would there be blood on my hands
Would there be murder in my name?
Your kingdom for a fire horse
The fire caught and leapt it’s course
What you gonna do now?
You were the king of Kankakee
You with your blessings and your brilliant queen
I am not looking to be subject
To a sovereign or a bet
I only want us to be free as we can learn to be
What of that mate I set adrift
He is the finest friend there is
I’ll love him to the end of me
I don’t know why he cannot feed
The part of me that’s starving
Needs the king of Kankakee
Are you the king of Kankakee?
I am not kind I am not sweet
I am bitter to the core
I am full of love and war
I am hungry as an army on it’s knees
Your kingdom for a fire horse
The fire caught and leapt it’s course
What you gonna do now?
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4. |
Cory Jo
04:24
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Take it back now Cory Jo
I am on your side you know
I would never turn you in
Take it back now what you did
What is happening in your head
You look cornered in that wildcat grin
Painted your old pickup truck
Silver like a spaceship
And now you want to take me for a ride
But you look like a pipe’s
About to burst inside your furnace
And I ain’t about to be burned up in that fire
Peeking out your windows
Not answering your front door
Calling me up every night
Sneaking round my backyard
You’re looking inside out and charred
Like the winter trees thirsting
For the winter sky
Giving me that look
Like you could read me like a brail 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
Take it back now Cory Jo
I am on your side you know
I would never turn you in
Take it back now what you did
What is happening in my head
You got me cornered in your wildcat grin
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5. |
Bluebird
02:23
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Bluebird bluebird
Do you feel absurd
Calling out calling out
To your false dawn
False dawn false dawn
Here you come now you’re gone
Just a trick of the guttering wick
And the dew on the lawn
Bluebird bluebird
You are not injured
Drag your wing walk away
From your heart’s home
Heart’s home heart’s home
Not of wood or stone
Not of steel flesh or bone
But of time alone
Bluebird bluebird
Each birth so sure
This will be the setting free
The cure the cure
The cure the cure
But what ails what’s sore
Blue feathers golden beak
What more could a bluebird need?
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6. |
Rosebud Bullets
02:29
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When we landed was it snowing
The wind was it blowing
Birds curled into balls
Tourists all flown off to where they were going
And you all curled up on your thoughts
We took the wrong turn
Took the wrong exit
Went the wrong way down the highway next
And when we alit it was just for a minute
The edge of that cliff we dared not look over it at all
Rosebud bullets run straight to the bone
Roseblood spilling like wine
Rosewater rivers run from my eves in the mean
In the mean in the mean time
So this winter when I left the city
I didn’t let it slip by
And I had a taste of the truth and the waste of it
And spit in the face of the wise
And now a black mood is apon me
I’ll sit in mourning awhile
For the truth comes and goes
Like a traveling show
But the blame sleeps with me every night
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7. |
Happy Hollow
03:17
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Stand here lit at the end of the day
Skies on fire and the fires at bay
And the bay is full of the strangest ships
Happy hollow haunted stripped
When I had nothing I wanted less
No Navajo rug no organdie dress
Only the time and the wheels and the rhyme
Some food in my belly
Some kick in my wine
Lie here low in the small dark dawn
Got your facts and your face and your mittens on
Got your fevered breast and your breaking waves
Happy hollow heady grave
When I got a little bit I wanted more
16 walls around me instead of just 4
hungry for things I did not even like
wake as if from a dream
pushing a cart down an aisle
walk here light on the afternoon
balanced like an egg on a spoon
you’re a tightrope dancer
your cane and funny little hat
thought you had all the answers
caught with your pants down
how ‘bout that?
We don’t know what simple is
We can’t leave well enough
We tear apart and slap together
Neither convinced nor tough
Pity their hard scrabbling
They scorn us for our pity
How like children we must look
Stubborn coddled silly
Sleep now still at the end of the line
Trash blows about and the buzzing lights
Bad dreams full of war machines
Bad dreams full of war machines
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8. |
Cities
04:17
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Your blooming by the pool
Skirted in red and it suits you
104 in the shade
your pale breast is brave
your eye is cool
I am flirting with danger
Today in Las Vegas
Just like one is apt to do
But here in the city of you
All the old bets are new
I am opening to the dawn
You hold my hand I’ll come along
You are Moorish, Atlantan
Your smile is a lantern
Your eye sings a siren song
I let go my halo
Here in San Diego
And goddess knows it feels right
Here in the city of you
What was heavy is light
Say goodbye to the night
We’re budding in the bar
We like it dark but it don’t have to be
We are free as two birds can be
Singing freaking free in this freak city
On the street I can kiss you
Here in San Francisco
It’s just like it ought to be
Here in the city of you
I am always at ease
At least I am up off my knees
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9. |
Unearthed
03:24
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Hold your breath till the walls turn blue
Bite your tongue till you chew
You’ll come unglued
Hold the phone in your trembling palm
And never make the call
You’ll come unglued
A girl unglued
Walk to the river with a copper wire
Go fishing for the lightning’s fire
You’ve come untied
Drowning into twin blue pools
Dying to keep your cool
You’ve come untied
A girl untied
Thunder down the road with an aching heart
Do it split the sky apart
You’ve been rewired
When his fingers touch the ground
Do all your lights go out
You’ve been rewired
A girl rewired
A miner with a singing pick
Has found your silver quick
You are unearthed
A time or ten you’ll slip again
But in the end you’ll stick
Unearthed
A girl unearhted
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10. |
Annabelle
03:02
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Annabelle you walk past my window
Like a woman under a spell
Your girl child mouth
Working out the words
To get me to tell you what goes on
Inside my happy hollow Annabelle
Annabelle I’ve already lost one love today
I hung up the phone and died
What more is there to display
My split heart or splintered pride
That’s all that’s in my happy hollow Annabelle
Annabelle you pose riddles
I don’t know the answer to
Held you now my hands slip off
Sang for you now I am mute
Gave you all the secrets
From inside my happy hollow Annabelle
Annabelle I’m only a shipwreck on a shallow reef
When you learn some diving skill
Stay away from wrecks like me
Can’t hold your breath long enough
Survive my happy hollow Annabelle
Annabelle I wore your medallion like an amulet
Though your skin has turned to rose quartz
Eyes have gone to jasper yet
Still you bring me gifts that help me
Ease my happy hollow Annabelle
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11. |
Big Wind
02:30
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Flowery cross on the roadside bend
Big wind gonna take it away
Trees round the barn and the chickens in the pen
Big wind gonna take it away
Black angus in the pasture
Running faster than you can catch her
On your daddy’s famous Arabian
Big wind gonna come it’ll all come undone
You better figure out what’s worth saving
Get in your car and drive
Get in your car
Gonna come on like a tornado cloud
Big wind gonna take it away
Better sit on the ground with your head bowed
Big wind gonna take it away
You put your knees up put your elbows down
Open up the window let the pressure out
Big wind gonna come it’ll all come undone
You better figure up what it’s all about
Get in your car and drive
Get in your car
Gonna come on like a monsoon rain
Big wind gonna take it away
Gonna kiss your hills and flood your plains
Big wind gonna take it away
All your little blind fishes
They’ll be calling out their wishes
They’ll be drowning in the light
Big wind gonna come it’ll all come undone
You better figure out what to keep dry
Get in your car and drive
Get in your car
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12. |
Rosie
03:09
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Are you flushed my Rosie
Breathless now my dear?
Willie caught your coat
And dance you here
Once around the coffin
Once around the car
Once around the roses
In the mason jar
Are you flushed my Rosie
Breathless now my dear?
Willie kissed your throat
And danced too near
Back behind the roses
Back behind the shed
Danced you down and kissed
Your mouth so red
Are you flushed my Rosie
Are you feeling ill?
How many weeks since you had
Your dance with Will?
Back behind the roses
Back behind the shed
While the sun was setting
A bloody red
I’ll go to the city
I’ll go to the town
I’ll go see a movie
Buy myself a gown
You’ll go to the city
With your belly round
Go to see your Willy
Show him what he’s done
Are you flushed my Rosie
Breathless now my dear?
Willy said he knew you
Not from Eve
Pushed you out the doorway
Out into the street
All the street kids laughing
At your grief
Are you pale my Rosie
Are you pale indeed?
Walking with your rope
Off to the hanging tree
Back behind the roses
Back behind the shed
While the sun is rising
A bloody red
I’ll go to the city
I’ll go to the town
I’ll go see your Willy
With my pistol drawn
I’ll go get his money
I’ll go get his car
I’ll play the dad or aunt
Or we’ll go see the doctor
Are you flushed my Rosie
Breathless now my dear?
Have I caught your coat
And danced you here?
Once around the coffin
Once around the car
Once around the roses
In the mason jar
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13. |
Black Braids
04:48
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You with the beautiful red face
There laughing on the bridge in Zeerikzee
Do you still have black braids
Pretty as a mare in may
Do you wear a checked dress
Knee socks pulled up high
That’s the way you look best
Matches your checkered eyes
Your father he’s a poet
Written you one book of poems
But your mother she is caught on you
She’d paint your portrait
She can’t paint your portrait
Your mothers Michelangelo
But painting she’s denied
30 years it’s punished her
It’s like she’d swallowed turpentine
As if she’d swallowed turpentine
And do you still have black braids
Pretty as a mare in may
You who age but don’t age
I hope your laughing your life away
Pretty as a mare in may
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14. |
Northern Coast
02:51
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I dream of the northern coast
California fog and dogpatch grass
Passes glowing red and roan
Manzanita or madrone
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
Dream the ports of Washington
Dressed in pressed Victorian
Lit by the moon mirrored sound
Plum berry black sweet and round
Or coarse as hands of lumberjacks
Want you to sit on their laps
Eyes cold as aircraft carriers
Like you were a fighter jet
Dream the springs of Oregon
Rivers carving gorges in
Armor I wear traveling
Till I find myself bare again
Only clothed in douglas fir
Feel the chill of clearcut earth
Women dance in stocking feet
Smiles as wide as small town streets
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Myshkin Warbler Astoria, Oregon
Myshkin and an ever-evolving crew of restless gamblers—string, horn, drum, key, and and wave players. Passions range from tango to electronica, folk-noir to gypsy-swing to modern classical to rocknroll. Literate & spooky. Myshkin mostly plays guitars. When warm, she sings like a shiver down your chakras. Like a heart breaking all wide open. Like one in utter control of uncontrollable things. ... more
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