Musicians rejoice, because Loveland has its own music store, Willow River Music.
Where previously customers looking for repairs or to buy guitars, amps, pedals, cellos, capos or any other musical amenity would have to hope that a local pawn shop or Downtown Sound, the Loveland record store that occasionally had musical equipment in stock, would have what they need, now there is a one stop shop on Cleveland Avenue with a pedigree in the business.
Don Jensen, formerly of
Jensen Guitars in Longmont, has been in the music business for decades, originally a musician but later a luthier (guitar maker) and repair technician, and he’s brought his customer base north with him.
He’s now located at 524 N. Cleveland Ave. downtown.
“You can’t go wrong buying from Don,” said Rick Nelson, a Longmont musician and instructor who teaches guitar and piano, among other instruments. “I send all of my students to Don.”
Jensen said he ran into consistent trouble with rental properties in Longmont, culminating in finding a new storefront before having his rent hiked, paying the increased amount, and then being told months later that the building had to be vacated.
“I was fine where I was, even though it was expensive,” Jensen said. “But there were structural issues with the building. We’d only moved in there 15 months before then, so we’d just done a major move, and that always sets you back.”
Jensen had committed plenty of work and money into his store in Longmont, including a stage where performers could play live and a guitar shop in the back for repairs and building new guitars.
A musician from a young age, Jensen tried a number of professions including insurance sales and phone solicitation, and said he hated all of them.
Eventually while working in construction he injured his back, and needed to find a new career to support himself.
“I thought, OK, I’ve got tool skills, I have trade skills, I’m a musician,” he remembered decades later. “I’m trying to figure out what to do, so why don’t I just work on guitars?”
Now, after leaving his old place, Jensen said that he was looking for somewhere stable to finish out his career, and downtown Loveland fit the bill. He still hopes to make his new spot like his old one.
“I’m toying with the idea,” he mused. “I think we could do performances here. That’d be in mid- to late-January…This isn’t like the old place with 15 foot ceilings, but I think I could pull it off.”
As for Loveland, Jensen enjoys his new digs, especially right across the street from the old Pulliam Building, that is currently under renovation to reopen.
“I like it,” Jensen said. “My best description is that it feels like a college town without the college. Lot of art, lot of culture, very diverse. It’s a smorgasbord of everything. I mean, you got churches everywhere, massage parlors, tattoo shops, art galleries, you’ve got the museum over here and murals on the building over there.”
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