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Mipso is a North Carolina quartet known for combining a traditional string band format with a variety of modern influences.

History While students at UNC-Chapel Hill, guitarist Joseph Terrell and mandolin player Jacob Sharp began performing at Chapel Hill open mic nights as an acoustic duo. With the idea of forming a band to play folk and bluegrass, they approached bassist Wood Robinson, with whom Terrell had previously performed in a half-serious campus party band, Funkosaurus Rex. Billed as "Mipso Trio," the group began performing in 2012 at campus events and occasionally around the state.

After partnering with local Chapel Hill record label, Robust Records, the group recorded "Long, Long Gone" (2012) and began performing regularly with friend and fiddle player, Libby Rodenbough. Mipso Trio quickly became a campus staple, known for performing at the historic Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, notably featuring then-Chancellor Holden Thorp on keyboard for their sold out graduation concert. The group is credited with helping to bridge the divide between the UNC music community and the broader music scene of North Carolina's Triangle, playing frequent concerts in Raleigh and Durham as well as performing with members of the Red Clay Ramblers and striking up an early friendship with fellow Carrboro residents Mandolin Orange.

Upon graduation from UNC in 2013, Terrell, Sharp, and Robinson began performing full-time. They traveled on a two week tour of Japan in August '13, including performances at the 43rd annual Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival and a concert at Tokyo's historic country music venue, Rocky Top. A documentary of their trip to Japan, directed by filmmaker Jon Kasbe, premiered at film festivals across the country in 2014, including the NYC Picture Start Film Festival, Riverrun International Film Festival, and Indie Grits.

2013 also saw them release "Dark Holler Pop" as the newly truncated "Mipso." Produced by Andrew Marlin and featuring members of Chatham County Line, Town Mountain, and Mandolin Orange, "Dark Holler Pop" was an exploration of bluegrass instrumentation and arrangements, with most songs featuring banjo and fiddle. The album was a surprise success, appearing on Billboard's Bluegrass chart and raising the band's profile considerably.

In 2014 the group continued to develop its sound, adding frequent collaborator Libby Rodenbough as a full time member and touring around the US for much of 2014 and 2015.

With 2015's Old Time Reverie, again produced by Andrew Marlin, Mipso expanded into richer, occasionally darker, textures, adding the clawhammer banjo and electric organ. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard's Bluegrass chart.

Meaning of Name Over the years the group has claimed various origins of the word "Mipso." In 2013 guitarist Joseph Terrell claimed that the members "just came up with it." In 2013 bassist Wood Robinson claimed that the name referred to a now defunct Japanese appliance manufacturer, crediting Jacob Sharp's thesis research into post-war Japan with unearthing a reference to the company. Sharp confirmed this version of the story in an interview with Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine. In a September 2015 interview with Raleigh's News & Observer, however, Terrell revealed a new origin story, claiming to want to dispel previous rumors.

“There’s a phrase in Japan,” he explains, “it means something familiar, but there’s something a little bit off. And it roughly translates, or at least we were told, to ‘a little pee in the miso.’ And so we put a little P in the miso: Mipso.”

This story has subsequently been published and re-confirmed in various publications.

Discography

Long, Long Gone (2012) as Mipso Trio Dark Holler Pop (2013) Faces (single) (2015) Old Time Reverie (2015