Mipso’s Train Hauls its Fragile, Fresh Freight into Richmond under Chandelier Stars

An Episodic Day in the Life of an Up-and-Coming Band’s Tour, Number Who-Knows-What

Setting the Stage

This is a “day-in-the-life” feature from this writer/fan trying to bring a band’s tour to life in a range beyond those shining, culminating moments on stage, in this case:    

Mipso             

(I hope you’ll consider reading also my piece in No Depression about Birds of Chicago, another band’s “day-in-the-life” story from the same week. But now, Mipso:)

They dark hollered and popped ‘neath peppering shards of tiny tears of night torn from the sky and put in a light candescent. Five lives intwined in acoustically fine lines, they twist hourly to find the sweetest rhyme and those stazaic lines lined most urgently for song. It’s down from the mountain but up to the skies. The floor has nothing but air, though solid for footing of chords and quarter notes to hoist these votives of poetry, lighting a darkening path, illuminated at least for tonight, the path clear to the door, wherever on earth or in heaven it lies.

I wrote the preceding about the Mipso concert that night, but the musicans day started sooner.

This one starts late afternoon at our appointed meeting place for an interview. It’s something I like to meld if possible into live reviews like the one I planned. The band had been traveling much of the day from its last gig and was running a little behind. When they arrived, Joe (Joseph Terrell) and Libby (Rodenbaugh) joined me at my perch at the bar, among the few seats in the place.

We were in a cool place, the Broadberry. Lucas, one of the operators of this club/music hall, also heads-up the Camel, up the street a ways, another venue for live music in central Richmond. I find the Camel a warmer space and like the layout better.  But, my first visit to the Broadberry couldn’t have been better. Their staff, led by newly designated Staff Supervisor, Sebastian, and his staff, couldn’t have been better.

Across the way, a raised platform had some tables and chairs and section of ceiling with several huge, glittering chandeliers, vestige of the club’s disco days. One hell of a week for music there. After Mipso, one of my favorite bands, came legendary Jamaican reggae band, Culture. I’d have camped-out there a couple more days if I could.

The players

Joe and Libby write and sing lead on the majority of the songs, though Jacob (Sharp) on vocals and mandolin is expanding his role. He’s a bright guy as evidenced by his solo contribution to the No Depression article earlier this month showcasing the developments evidenced in their their new album.

They are a good-looking, intelligent, troupe. Joe’s piercing eyes and crisp features support a quick wit and smart lyricism. Libby is charming, a bit laconic, and funny. She has a snappy style, deep, dark eyes, and an exotic-look, a certain ethnicity there? I’ve meant to ask her, or just God’s good thinking in general? I like the look of Joe and Libby together, leaning into each other earnestly with their guitar and fiddle. I see her eyes intent on him, Joe tuned on the universe.

The Mipso world also revolves around: Jacob’s smiling demeanor, never far from the surface. He and Joe mirror each other a bit, could be brothers. Wood Robinson, tall and sturdy, bearded, deftly continues his role rocking the bass and harmony vocals, an anchor for the band’s advances through musical cultural identity.

The band has expanded, with one increase evident on the tour, the addition of a drummer, Yan, a skilled man with the sticks and tall, light-haired, striking young fellow. Like the whole band, he comes across, personally, with warmth and sincerity.

They’d been caught in traffic, traveling in their band van with equipment trailer in tow. They were driving in from Philadelphia, a sixth day on the move, playing each night, from Chicago to Madison, WI, to Columbus, OH, and on to Pittsburgh. Then: DC and Philly, and after that here to the comforts of Broad Street, Richmond. Joe and Libby showed no signs of wear and tear.

While I met with those two, the other band members and the band’s all-around helper, Wilson, began off-loading equipment and instruments from their vehicles.

Joe remembers Japan and the “guys’” youth

I recently found online a documentary of an even younger Mipso touring Japan. I said to Joe that the guys in the band seemed to be having a lot of fun. “You guys looked kind of wild, you were filmed on top of a “bidet” at one time,” I said. “Oh, yeah, right,” he said, thinking back and picturing that moment. I told them that I said this somewhat in jest, but “was Libby a stabilizing influence after that?” They both laughed loudly at that, with Libby laughing loudest. “In short,” Joe then answered, “No!”

It’s a fun documentary, though, with some hot playing and adoring Japanese audiences. Happy, almost giddy musicians are playing their traditional music in a very different tradition and culture. “How old were you then?” I asked, “20,” he said. “And how are you old now?”  “26.” Mature old men at 26,” they said almost in unison. “Yeah, Libby’s just become a man by now,” Joe laughed, as did Libby, at that unlikely development.

Mipso’s on the move, wearing change with pride

Mipso and The Wild Reeds, another top-notch young band, were touted here in New Depression recently as the future where bluegrass and other roots music is headed. I asked the band about that change and if their new Coming Down the Mountain is a departure.

Joe said, “the album is still our songs and our voices. At first, we were consciously a string band, and we did that with a purpose, as a fun project until we were going in more directions and employing more instruments.” Libby added, “I’d refer to it more as an advancement,” stressing advance, “than a departure.” Maybe that’s always true if you’re in a band, always feeling you’re advancing, on a trajectory. How the trajectory is moving – what are your strengths and where you’re headed?”

Survival on the road, the life of a band

I asked them about the stresses of their nearly constant travel in confined spaces with the same group of companions. I told them what I’d heard about another band I follow, that they’d had to take a break and were going through some serious changes.

“We’re on that same train,” Joe said. “There are crazy moments when you feel like jumping off a cliff. But, it tends to work because essentially we’re all on the same page. We always realize that bands don’t last forever. That’s not the point of the band. The only bands that last forever are those that make millions of dollars and get too old to make music anyway.” This last “too old to make music” bit made me cringe a bit.

He went on, “It is a band based on the four of us working really well together. The whole is better than the sum of its parts.” Libby added, “But, every band needs a break at some point.  Each of us can at times imagine us at a simpler, more manageable lifestyle, and it’s easy to get a bit wistful about that. But, we all know that.” “Friends a decade or so older than us, with family and kids, the stress is greater on them,” Joe said.

Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade and the Governor

Some claims to fame have happened to the band in the past year or so. One day, Macy’s Parade people called them and asked if they wanted to appear on a float. “We thought it was a joke or spam,” Joe said. I expressed surprise, thought the parade’s performances largely lame. “We’d agreed with you,” Joe said, “we thought, ‘what good could come of this?’ but we decided to give it a try.”

Where else would they find themselves, they added, on a tour bus next to Pat Benatar? And, they were blissed to see their names on U-Tube dramatically bumping in viewership. In fact, in a screenshot that a friend took just after their float was shown on TV, they were sandwiched between Elton John and Justin Bieber. But, snapping again a minute later, they were gone, quick as that.

They also received a call from their new Governor’s people, asking Mipso to perform at his inaugural ball, which they did. An enjoyable experience, Joseph said they were glad to be able to indicate to their fans in that way who and what they supported. “He’s pretty cool,” Libby said. Joe added that they, i.e. North Carolina, were “a purple state in a complicated way,” with credits in a number of progressive areas while having “still a long way to go.”

Both artists said they considered themselves North Carolinians as did the other two core band members regardless of where they now reside. Too many of their colleagues, they said, are “tethered more to an industry (music industry) than to a place with an identity.” They said they valued North Carolina’s tradition of public education, one reason they all went to The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and remained identified as North Carolinians. I’d asked Libby about their connection to Hiss Golden Messenger, aka Mike Taylor (and his band), as I knew she admired him and that he lived in Chapel Hill. She told me, to my surprise, that he had been her folklore professor at UNC.

I asked them if they were getting famous. No, they said. But, they have, Joe said, been having “bigger crowds than ever before” and getting booked “in more places than ever before.” “We’re just glad to be able to do it,” he said.

UNC grads, one-and-all, the guys disperse, while Libby keeps Chapel Hill home fires burning.

North Carolina natives all, the entire band met while students at UNC. The band began with the fellas. I asked them how Libby joined the group. Joe said they’d known Libby early on. “She paid us to join,” he said. “Yeah, I paid $20,000 to join the band,” Libby interjected, “I think I got the better end of the deal!” “Libby’s just a great musician and songwriter,” Joe said, “she just added another voice.”

But now they’ve dispersed in a long ribbon along the east coast. Joe’s in Boston. While he likes the city, he said, “I’m there for the girlfriend, not for the city.” The girlfriend he refers to is a student in political theory at Harvard. Wood is in Asheville, NC, for perhaps, I’m guessing, obvious reasons to those involved in hip arts and culture, Jacob is in New York City, I believe they said also for a relationship.

Libby holds down the fort, living near Chapel Hill still. With the others mostly in relationships, I asked Libby what’s up with her. “The touring musician’s life makes it very hard. I’ve found it difficult to maintain relationships in those conditions. So, I do date a bit, but nothing serious.”

Some lunch with Joe, brutally good Pizza, sound check, and opener Dan Mills, aka Carl Perkins

First Dan –

Dan Mills and his long-time musical partner, Mark Goodell, opened for Mipso. What a pleasure to meet and visit with them prior to their opening salvo of, much like Mipso to come, brand new and older stuff.

Dan has a major musical credit under his belt, having starred in The Million Dollar Quartet at the famed Nederlander Theater on Broadway. He played the country great Carl Perkins in the musical based on the magic short-lived quartet formed at Sun Records in Memphis comprised of Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis. “I was doing kid’s birthdays when somebody from the play asked if I wanted to play Perkins. Things changed fast,” he said. He jumped to a period of fame, but chose not to play Perkins on the European tour as he felt he looked “too Jewish” to continue the role.

Dan usually works with a full band. As long as they’ve played together, this was the first time the two had played as a duo.

After my interview with Mipso, Dan, Mark, and I sat at that afore-mentioned long bar, where I’d joined them, and discussed Mipso, Dan’s time as a Broadway star, his new home in Boston near his friend Joseph from Mipso, and other stuff, like music venues Café Passim (well-known, in Boston) and Vegetable Buddies (not so well-known, in South Bend, IN).

Then Joe and the Pizza –

A row of meals in Styrofoam boxes were lined-up on the end of the bar close to the kitchen. Band and crew grabbed their meals from these treats, and I joined Joe for a little more, un-recorded, conversation. I then made my way over to the table they’d set up for me by the stage to savor my pizza slice that had just come up. Piled high with finely diced spicy sausage and Portobello mushrooms, it was one of the best pizzas I’ve ever tasted, at a huge cost of $6, an amazing bargain, as were most of their menu items.

While I ate, the club’s sound crew worked with the band and Mipso’s all-around guy Wilson.

Audience slowly builds, one fan has me beat.

Did they really say “80?”

Earlier, before the show, Libby introduced me to a young lady whom she said was one of their biggest fans, there with her daughter, another fan. Jeannette Williams is a spirited and attractive lady of a sprightly 80 years who was introduced to the band by her grandsons in North Carolina, who are Mipso fans. She and her daughter, Janet, have made numerous trips to catch the foursome’s gigs in Virginia and North Carolina. They came in that night from their home in nearby Mechanicsville.

The Show, Curtain Up!

Dan Mills

Dan and Mark played a memorable opening set that, like he is offstage, showed Dan’s warmth, openness, and at times self-deprecating humor, regarding his overtly “Jewish” nose, etc. He closed his set in the audience, playing his guitar and singing as he made his way down from the stage and into the leading members of the crowd.

Dan welcomed how attentive the crowd was.  I, too, welcomed how the crowd did not diminish the experience by loudly talking during the show. I’ve seen Jeff Tweedy end a great Wilco encore because of such behavior. I admired too that they gave Dan and Mark the same respect and interest they later gave the headliners.

Dan’s songs were primarily from his soon-to-be-released CD and the one that precedes it, Home before the Rise of the Tide. They were at times jazzy, at other times folky, with some rock-and-roll and balladic moments here and there.

Mipso

Under chandelier stars, Mipso played a night full of stellar tunes. Many were from their just out, Down from the Mountain, album. Other songs resonated from deep in the Blue Ridge. Mipso may be down from the mountain, but they are not leaving it behind. First up was the lively “Down in the Water,” featuring Libby’s vocals, from their just preceding album, Old Time Reverie. Then came the rollicking “Hurt So Good,” from the new album. “Marianne” from Reverie and “Spin Me Around” from Down from the Mountain were next.

They also did “Monterey County” a lovely, introspective, on-the-road piece, written by Joe and featuring his vocal. “Facing the sun off old Highway 1/I squint my eyes west toward the waves/I know my folks missed me/But I somehow missed Christmas/Had a new place, thought I’d stay … A short, late night phone call from a number I knew/Then a rented Toyota and an old borrowed suit/Now I’m driving alone through Monterey County/Headed back home to LA.”

The warm dampness of evening air enveloped me as I felt myself driving lonely along the coast highway near Monterey. I liked the song at check and even more in performance. During all of this, the venue sent lights swirling in imaginative shapes. Jacob took the lead on the memorable “Stranger” written with Joseph. His mandolin and high tenor blended in the night. “There’s a shadow on my pillow/Where you used to lay your head/I keep waking up too early in the middle of/the bed”

Libby’s “Water Runs Red,” which she sings, closed out the set, with her intense and enigmatic lyrics burning with the urgency of a poker. “We work for our children/Feed them till we fill them/but it’s love that will kill them/Having spun ‘em out of thread/And the water runs red/The water runs red …. I went to the station/Then said, darling, what’s the occasion?/I said, lies are what you make ‘em/and you will never eat my bread/And the water runs red/The water runs red.

Throughout the show, Woods’ bass and vocals and Yan’s drums accented and drove the melody along.

Probably my favorite song was one not on the original set list but a request from their 80-year-young fan. That tune, “When I’m gone” would have power for anyone, but, especially someone more than flirting with age like me. Jacob’s vocals and mandolin are lovely on this, a tune from their earlier Dark Holler Pop album.

My Response

I had an especially strong reaction to the show. I try to describe it:

They dark hollered and popped ‘neath peppering shards of tiny tears of night torn from the sky and put in a light candescent. Five lives intwined in acoustically fine lines, they twist hourly to find the sweetest rhyme and those stazaic lines lined most urgently for song. It’s down from the mountain but up to the skies. The floor has nothing but air, though solid for footing of chords and quarter notes to hoist these votives of poetry, lighting a darkening path, illuminated at least for tonight, the path clear to the door, wherever on earth or in heaven it lies.

Good-bye to the guys, and to Libby at the door, while merch sales and equipment loading continue

I was pleased when Libby, as I waved to her from the Broadberry door, left a group, came over and gave me a gentle neck-hug goodbye.

For the band, now it was a 10-day break!, headed to their respective homes before hitting the road again for gigs along the upper east coast. Meanwhile, I Ubered to a nearby Super 8, with more-than-happy music in my head.

It takes some doing to make these trips to Richmond to catch/cover my favorite acts, but more than worth it. Mipso no exception. Blessings!