Tom Kipp is into sharing the music he’s collected his whole life. A DJ in the most traditional sense, he spins music from vinyl records played on a good-old turntable. If he hasn’t tattooed you from his very own Conductor Tattoo shop in Durango, maybe you’ve heard him on the radio, hosting shows on local station KDUR, the Fort Lewis College radio station this writer (me) happens to manage.
But long before he hosted radio shows he was collecting records which he continues to amass, now sharing that collection out in public as 2-Bit Tom Kipp, DJ for hire spinning what he calls “classics,” anything from old blues to instrumental surf-rock to country from artists like Howlin’ Wolf, The Astronauts or Hank Snow, at venues like 11th Street Station, Durango Coffee Co., the Secret Garden at the Rochester Hotel or at the Wyman Hotel in Silverton.
Loyal listeners to his Wednesday night radio show “Wavering Strangers” started inquiring about Kipp taking his show public, and when he started getting equipment to do so, the ball started rolling.
“About a year ago equipment started cosmically coming my way, and it was just kind of a no-brainer,” he said. “It started with a table, second thing was a couple of turntables, and a friend had a mixer. That’s the basis and it just kind of bloomed from there.”
Kipp’s remained a music gatherer, so when vinyl took a backseat to the compact disc in the 1990s, he too started collecting CDs. But vinyl, however, never died for him – now that the LP is back among collectors, he sees people digging on vinyl when he’s out spinning; music lovers familiar with his selections dig the throwback vibe despite the cuts being a bit under the radar, while youngsters are being turned onto an important part of the American music canon. Kipp’s providing a public service as he lets people know there’s more in the music landscape than the low-hanging fruit that are the same songs heard on repeat via classic rock radio.
“When I’m deejaying, there’s older folks who like to see that. It’s definitely a nostalgia thing for them. And what’s fun deejaying, especially the country tunes and the blues stuff is that it's this kind of universal music. So a lot of folks really dig it because it is nostalgic, and then young folks dig it because they’re just not that familiar with it,” Kipp said. “I played out one time a little while ago and there was one young man who kept coming over to the table just to be like ‘what is this?’ I’d be playing Hank Williams, and he didn’t know who Hank Williams was, so I’m glad that day that person got turned on to Hank Williams, and now maybe that’s in his repertoire, maybe he’s exploring just a little bit more. It piqued his interest. The point of sharing music with people is to get them interested in it.”
To many, an in-public DJ is someone spinning electronic music in a dance club, an exclusively digital offering where music is being built via mixing beats and melodies. Kipp is not that type of DJ, instead offering an all analog listening experience, playing one song after the next where if you listen close enough you’ll hear the warm crackle heard only via the stylus of a turntable contacting a vinyl record.
“I really like the analog experience. I like selecting the next track. I like queuing up the needle in the groove and hitting go” he said. “Digital is great, I have nothing against it. But it’s just not the same.”
With public response to his musical offerings being positive, and the musical education being provided, Kipp’s been bitten by the bug.
“I just want to go set up and play records for people,” he said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”
Information about Kipp’s future DJ events can be found on Instagram at 2.bit.tom.kipp.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
