Some things change, and some things stay the same. Sometimes, change and continuity happen in the same place at the same time. 

This appears to be the case for the Denver Folklore Center, the iconic business at 1893 S. Pearl St.

According to Claude Brachfeld, who along with Saul Rosenthal purchased the center from its founder, Colorado folk music patriarch Harry Tuft, the spirit that made the Folklore Center a hub for education, community and outreach will be fostered and will remain unchanged. 

“People who walk into the store will find it unchanged from Harry’s time,” Brachfeld said. 

Behind the scenes, though, there will be an expansion in the way the store conducts business. The plan is to add a full-service, online sales platform that will expand the center’s reach. 

“Our vision is to be not only a cultural center and musical instrument resource for musicians in Denver, but for musicians all over the country,” Brachfeld said. “Traveling musicians both amateur and professional drop in all the time, and we want to be able to maintain our contact with them and provide them with the instruments they need, even when they’re not here in Denver.”

The platform will be a sales tool, of course, but it will also be a forum by which musicians can connect. 

Connection itself is what brought Brachfeld and Rosenthal to the table. Brachfeld said his and Rosenthal’s long relationship with Tuft as customers and friends made the idea of stepping in to take over a no-brainer. 

Brachfeld and Rosenthal have each had at least one other career, Brachfeld working for many years as an interventional cardiologist, then a healthcare consultant for insurance companies and as a teacher. All the while he has managed to foster his musical interests. 

“I’ve been a musician since I was a teenager,” Brachfeld said. 

When asked where he falls on the amateur to professional spectrum, Brachfeld said, with a chuckle, “I have played for money in the past, but that does not make me a professional. I would say I’m a serious amateur.”

Brachfeld’s partner Rosenthal has himself been a professional musician for many years, most notably with Rocky Mountain Jewgrass. He is also a cantor for Congregation Rodef Shalom, where the two met. 

Brachfeld and Rosenthal understandably bring much enthusiasm to this transition, but for founder Tuft, though his love of the store and its community remains undaunted, some of the joy was missing from his day-to-day duties.

“To be brutally honest about this, some of the actual working of the store had lost its luster,” Tuft said. “I was not as ready to learn about new business models. I lost some energy around that aspect of the business, and I found myself being more in the office than out front. I realized that maybe those were signals that it was time to find someone else to take over.”

On another front, Tuft found himself reconnecting with an old love. 

“I had found that the store’s three principal employees were doing so well and I could reduce my hours to half time, and this gave me more time to make music which made me realize how much I wanted to do that.” 

Though he’s sold the business, Tuft said he’ll remain an advisor to Brachfeld and Rosenthal.

Still, retirement beckons, and Tuft has plans. 

When asked to comment on a rumor that he plans to spend time picking and traveling, Tuft said that’s pretty much his plan. 

“I’ll continue playing as I’ve been playing in Denver, at the Clyfford Still Museum Oct. 9, some private parties and I’ll do the Jews do Jews Dec. 10,” he said.

In February, he and his longstanding band Grubstake will play Swallow Hill. 

He also insinuated there is something large in the works for the spring, but he intends to remain mum on the subject until plans are finalized. 

California is also on his map. He’ll head that way for his daughter’s wedding and for gigs in Berkeley with old friends. 

When asked if he has made any big travel plans to celebrate this change in his life, Tuft said, with a smile, “I love Paris in the springtime.”