Morganton native, Mipso founder Jacob Sharp to release solo album

When he and his partner arrived at the Hilton on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Jacob Sharp — a touring musician with a stack of honors points — was immediately upgraded to a room with a mountainside view.

The mountains burned in a raging wildfire. Sharp watched as the flames rapidly consumed the landscape.

“It was like this cruel example of how broken capitalism is, that I got upgraded so I could watch my town burn down,” Sharp said.

Sharp was one of many near L.A. who were displaced in January 2025 when multiple wildfires tore through the region.

It was then that songs on the Morganton native’s upcoming album took on a new meaning.

The album, titled “Middle Kid,” is set to release on all streaming platforms Oct. 9, but before then, Sharp is coming home from Durham to play a concert at Fonta Flora Brewery’s Whippoorwill Farm on Sunday, giving the audience a preview of the album before its release.

It will be a doubly sentimental show since Oct. 4 is his dad’s birthday.

Sharp said one of his favorite things as a musician is when he writes a song about something, and someone relates it to completely different events in their own life.

“With this batch of tunes, I have the unique thing of that having happened to myself, where I know I wrote it about something different, but now the meaning it offers me when I listen back has shifted and kind of grown alongside my life,” Sharp said.

The songs were written before the wildfires, he said. The album was recorded after, and the songs are now connected to a new chapter of life Sharp was abruptly ushered into when he lost his home.

The music is also an “honest reflection of how we grow and change,” Sharp said. Some of it represents growing at a different pace than friends, he said.

“Not that that creates negativity or division, but an honest separation,” Sharp said. “But there’s a lot of uplifting stuff, too.”

Sharp’s musical background includes forming the popular — and now retired — bluegrass, Americana band Mipso. His solo work has familiar elements for Mipso fans but leans more indie-folk, he said.

Several songs are already available to hear across all major music streaming platforms, Sharp said. The full, 10-song album will drop on Oct. 9.

Physical copies will only be available on vinyl.

“(Vinyls are) what I listen to, and honestly, I don’t know anybody who still has a CD player,” Sharp said. “When you play music and have made a career of it for as long as I have, you see a lot of the waste. I have seen these plastic little cases for CDs that people treat more like coasters than music, and I just … don’t want to create something that doesn’t offer value to people.”

The concert will be on Sunday at Fonta Flora Brewery’s Whippoorwill Farm at 6751 N.C. 126 in Nebo. Tickets cost $40 and can be purchased online. Sharp said tickets are running out.

Musicians Viv & Riley will open at 4 p.m. and Jacob Sharp will take the stage at 5 p.m.