Read about and listen to a fave band of ours – Mipso from North Carolina
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By Rob Dickens
Firstly, some background. Hailing from the important music town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, indie Americana quartet Mipso are Jacob Sharp (mandolin, vocals), Wood Robinson (bass, vocals), Joseph Terrell (guitar, vocals), and Libby Rodenbough (fiddle, vocals). The new release is the combo’s fifth and came out on April 6 2018 via a newly inked record deal with AntiFragile Music.
The band has a string-band Appalachian aesthetic but augment that with alt. country and folk flavors that provide a broader palette from which we all can draw. Mipso has traditionally been more than the sum of the parts and operate on a highly collaborative ethos. That democratic spirit is evident on Edges Run.
“We’d all seen a lot of change in a short period,” says Sharp of the time between the band’s 2016 release, Coming Down The Mountain and Edges Run – recorded in early 2017. “Three of us moved out of the Triangle# area and into other places. We had relationships end and deaths of friends and family members.”
The album was recorded out of the members’ comfort zone during the dead of winter in Eugene, Oregon with producer (and bassist) Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco, Andrew Bird, Anaïs Mitchell) and this provides for plenty for reflection and inward focus. “We were beginning to feel, probably for the first time, that youth was more behind us than ahead, and so I think we were all feeling different pressures closing in,” says Sharp.
It is a profound and thought-provoking collection, highly recommended. Key tracks are the wistful “People Change”, “Golden Kettle” and “People Change”
The band has now released an official video for “Servant To It”, showing shows the behind-the-scenes dynamic and shenanigans of the band on the road. Libby Rodenbough describes:
“There’s a romantic myth about artists that doesn’t square with the banal kind of privilege it usually takes to be one publicly. “Servant To It” is a wink at that myth. This video is a portrait of our reality as working musicians. Jacob Blumberg, the creator, came out on the road with us on a recent run down through the Deep South, and he put together a ton of material—disposable camera stills, old VHS camcorder footage, etc.—in a way that conveys the fun and silliness and strangeness and madness of touring.“
Here is the “Servant To It” clip:
Mipso is currently on an extensive North American album release tour, with more dates to be announced. Look out for them.
May 11 – Carnegie Hall – Lewsiburg, VA **
May 12 – Mainstage – Morgantown, WV **
May 13 – Club Cafe – Pittsburgh, PA **
May 15 – The Ark – Ann Arbor, MI **
May 17 – Turf Club – St Paul, MN ^^
May 18 – Shitty Barn Sessions – Spring Green, WI ^^ – Sold Out
May 19 – Lincoln Hall – Chicago, IL ^^
May 20 – Bell’s Eccentric Cafe – Kalamazoo, MI ^^
++ w/ Anna Tivel
** w/ Courtney Hartman
^^ w/ The Lowest Pair
Jun 15 – Blue Ox Music Festival – Eau Claire, WI
Jun 17 – Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival – Croton-On-Hudson, NY
Jul 13 – Red Wing Roots Music Festival – Mount Solon, VA
Aug 5 – Mishawaka Amphitheatre w/ The Weepies – Boulder, CO
Aug 6 – Chautauqua Auditorium w/ The Weepies – Boulder, CO
Aug 16 – Green Mountain Bluegrass & Roots – Manchester, VT
Sep 15 – Whale Rock Music Festival – Templeton, CA
More Tour Dates Will Emerge Here
# The Triangle is in the Piedmont of North Carolina and is bound by the cities of Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh.
Via Live Loud Media
Read about and listen to a fave band of ours – Mipso from North Carolina
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