8E j The BirminghamNews Sunday, April 25, 2010LIFESTYLE

“The place is almost frightening in the daytime. At night, though, it’s pure magic.”HankMoore, a Gip’s regular since the late 1990s

NEWS STAFF/HAL YEAGER

HOW TO FIND GIP’SThe surest way to get toGip’s Place is to go withsomebody who’s beenthere before and knowshow to find it.But if you trust yournavigational skills, here aredirections:

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NEWS STAFF/HAL YEAGER

Before a Fourth of July party several years ago, Gip’s Place regular LennyMaddenmade good on his promise togive the shed amuch-neededmakeover, adding a tin roof and siding to replace the old canvas tarp. “There’snothing else like this anymore,” Madden says.

GIP’S:‘Where allthe cats play’From Page 1E

creosote posts that dateback to 1952, when Gipsonbuilt his backyard shack sofolks could drop by, hangout and make music.

Gipson’s friend and bluesbrother Lenny Madden gavethe place a much-neededmakeover about 10 yearsago — “All I did was dupli-cate what he had,” Maddensays — but unless you sawwhat it looked like before,you wouldn’t know any bet-ter.

Inside, Christmas lightsand Mardi Gras beads dan-gle from the ceiling, tatteredposters of Robert Johnsonand Muddy Waters coverthe walls, and a big, yellowsign with a wild-eyed blackcat, courtesy of Birminghamartist Steve Lowery, de-clares, “Welcome to Gip’sPlace, Where All the CatsPlay.”

“The place is almostfrightening in the daytime,”says Hank Moore, a Gip’sregular since the late 1990s.“At night, though, it’s puremagic.”

Like almost everybodyelse who’s been here, Mooredidn’t discover Gip’s on his

own.He heard about it through

his buddy Madden, whoheard about it through hisfriend Johnny “Bondo”Baldwin, a Birmingham gui-tar picker who introduced

Madden to Gip’s late onenight in 1998.

They were among the firstwhites to venture into Mr.Gip’s predominantly blackneighborhood.

“Johnny said, ‘Put yourguitar in my truck and comewith me,’ ” Madden recalls.“He carried me down hereabout one or two o’clock inthe morning.

“Gip was asleep. I hadnever met him before. Hecame down and we playeduntil four in the morning.We had a good time. Heinvited me to come backthat Saturday.”

Madden and Gipson be-came immediate friends.Gipson, who has childrenand grandchildren of hisown, affectionately callsMadden “my first son,” andMadden calls him “Pop.”

A couple of years afterthey met, Madden, a masterplumber and jack-of-all-trades who makes cigar-boxguitars on the side, deliv-ered on his promise to fix upGipson’s place, installing atin roof to replace the oldcanvas covering, adding awooden dance floor andbuilding a new stage.

Among blues aficionadosand adventure-seekers,word of mouth has sincegotten around about Gip’sPlace.

“We’ve been under the ra-dar for a long, long time,”Madden says. “We don’t putan address on the Internet,but we’ve had people comehere who said, ‘Well, so-and-so told me about it.’ It’sa good core of people wholike the blues.”

One of those is Roger Ste-phenson, a former Pennsyl-vania resident who movedto Birmingham about sevenyears ago and found outabout Gip’s Place throughsome friends in the MagicCity Blues Society.

“One or two people said,‘You need to go to Mr. Gip’s,that’s the real deal,’ ” Ste-phenson says. “I was one ofthe brave ones that said, ‘I’llgo.’

“To be honest, at night,coming here by yourself,takes a little courage the firsttime,” he adds. “Onceyou’ve been here, of course,you know everything’s fine.”

That’s because Gipsondoesn’t put up with any riff-raff.

He tries to greet all of his

guests and goes over thehouse rules with those hedoesn’t know — no drugs,no profanity and no baggypants. Every show beginswith a prayer.

“We’ve never had anytrouble,” Madden says. “Ifwe ever have a fist fight, Iwant to stop everything sowe can watch and say, ‘Well,we’ve had our problemnow.’ ”

A Delta experienceGip’s holds maybe 50

folks shoulder-to-shoulder,but on hot summer nights,the sides come down somore people can hang out-side and listen.

“All of the locals make itwhat it is,” Moore says.“There are so many charac-ters and types of people thatyou might not come acrossin your life but, in the nameof music, everybody comestogether.

“You see blacks andwhites dancing together andhaving a good time,” headds. “It’s like a big, happyfamily, and the musiciansfeel like they’re a part of thefamily, too.”

Guests bring coolers filledwith their favorite libations,and Madden and otherspass the hat to pay the mu-sicians.

Over the years, Gip’s hasbecome a must-stop formany of the North Missis-sippi hill country blues play-

ers — from Cedric Burnside& Lightnin’ Malcolm toKenny Brown and T-ModelFord — who respect theplace for its authenticity.

“One of the things thatstruck me when we firststarted going out there wasit was a bunch of folks wholoved the blues, lived themusic, and there was abso-lutely nothing commercialabout it at all,” says ElliottNew, who grew up in Moun-tain Brook and now plays inthe South Carolina-basedblues band Elliott and theUntouchables.

“Nobody was there tomake a buck,” he adds. “Ev-erybody was there to have agood time and listen to themusic and play some music.To me, that was the magic ofwhat it as all about — a realDelta blues kind of experi-ence.”

New, who has playedGip’s Place on a handful ofoccasions, took some re-cording equipment to thejuke joint a couple a yearsago so Gipson could make aCD of his.

“He had never really beenrecorded and released, and Ithought what he doesneeded to be captured,”New says. “I also justwanted him to experiencehaving a release. I think hedeserves to have a recordout.”

Gipson sells the disc,“Nothin’ But the Blues,” athis juke joint for $10.

“So many people drift inand out of that place that,from what I understand,there are some people inEngland that got ahold ofit,” New says. “And they’replaying it on the radio overthere.”

Gravedigger by dayGipson first got smitten

with the blues while grow-ing up in the small BlackBelt community of Union-town and later moved to

Bessemer to work for thePullman-Standard boxcarcompany.

After he retired from Pull-man-Standard, he became agravedigger and now ownsPine Hill Cemetery west ofBirmingham.

Gipson doesn’t like to tellhis age, but the best any-body can figure, he shouldbe 87.

“I make a joke that we’vecelebrated his 86th birthdayfive years in a row,” Maddensays. “But he’s 87 — wethink.”

On occasion, Gipson isprone to ramble on aboutreligion and the end times,and he has a propensity toimbibe a wee too much afterhe gets home from workingin the graveyard all day.

“His ability to hold his li-quor and get up and go tochurch is amazing —onboth counts,” Moore says.“He never misses church onSunday morning, no matterhow late they play.”

Gipson says God hasblessed him with people likeMadden and Moore andStephenson and New —folks who, if it weren’t forGip’s Place, he would nototherwise know.

“They showed me a lifebeyond the life I had everknown,” he says. “And eventoday, that life is still aheadof me.”

With Gipson getting onup in his years, though, andjoints like Gip’s Place all butextinct, Moore says everySaturday night at Gipson’sjuke joint is special. The lastshow Moore missed, in fact,was because he had a rootcanal that same day.

“I never take a singleshow for granted because itcould all be over with to-morrow and just be a mem-ory,” Moore says.

“It’s something a lot ofpeople are going to miss ter-ribly when it’s gone.”

E-MAIL: bcarlton@bhamnews.com

NEWS STAFF/JEFF ROBERTS

Madden, who built the cigar-box guitar he’s playing here, often performs andserves as master of ceremonies at Gip’s Place. A friend tookMadden to the jukejoint in 1998, and he’s been coming back ever since. “I didn’t tell a lot of people atfirst just because it was cool being down here and jamming,” he says.

NEWS STAFF/HAL YEAGER

Old posters of blues legends Robert Johnson andMuddyWaters cover the wallsinside Gip’s Place.