Denver music institution Twist & Shout — a longtime, locally owned record store — has been sold to a new owner, founders Paul and Jill Epstein announced Monday., sold the business to store manager Patrick Brown, Paul Epstein said. He expects the store will continue to thrive, citing Brown’s three-decade role managing Twist & Shout and its year-over-year growth due to the continuing explosion of vinyl record sales and renewed interest in CDs.
Twist & Shout, located at 2508 E. Colfax Ave., is one of the region’s biggest record stores, and one of Colorado’s last remaining music-retail icons, following the closure of national chains such as Tower Records and Virgin Megastore, and the near-total implosion of local chains such as Angelo’s.— Twist & Shout has beat the trend of traditional, brick-and-mortar music emporiums being replaced with online shopping and digital streaming.
Brown has worked at the store for 30 years because it’s the type of environment he likes to see out in the world, he wrote via email. Against considerable odds, Twist & Shout also stayed open for business for most of the last two years, closing only from March through May of 2020 during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Since then, it has returned to full strength in distinct stages, slowly reopening with limited hours, smaller capacity and, until very recently, mask requirements. Epstein credited his Paycheck Protection Program loan with part of the store’s resiliency, but also his dedicated staff.
Let me get this straight, Patrick Brown is buying a record store from the Epsteins. Will someone please help Patrick Brown with this.