Oar Folkjokeopus
This was the second of three record stores at this location, Lake Street and James Ave. in South Minneapolis:
- North Country Music: 1970 – 1973
- Oar Folkjokeopus: 1973 – 2001
- Treehouse Records
Sanden renamed it “Oar Folkjokeopus,” a name based on the solo album “Oar” by “Skip” Spence of Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape, and an album by British folk musician Roy Harper, “Folkjokeopus.”
Klayman:
Vern clearly took the store and personality that I built and made it a very successful and popular store with his own brand and signature and that unusual name. I give him much credit for that, but he also bought a turn-key business that had loyal paying customers on the very first day, for a song. The foundation had already been laid for him. He turned a profit on day one. A pretty sweet deal for him, and not such a good deal for me. But I was young and dumb and wanted a change and that’s OK. But I was always a bit miffed that he never once referred to me or my store as ever having existed.
Vern hired Peter Jesperson in April of 1973.
For the first year and a half Jesperson worked the counter, and became the store manager in September 1975. He was there through June of 1983. Jesperson co-founded Twin/Tone Records during the fall of 1977, and the store as well as the label thrived due in large part to each other. The trifecta of Twin/Tone, the Longhorn, and Oar Folk largely fueled the punk and rock scene in Minneapolis during that era. Bands such as the Replacements, Suburbs, Flamin’ Oh’s, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, Jayhawks, and Curtiss A all maintained links between the three.
A fire on October 7, 1985, completely gutted Oar Folk and destroyed its inventory. In December 1985, a temporary location was opened at 2635 Nicollet Ave. Vern Sanden reopened the record store with the help of Mark Trehus, who ran his own indie record label, Treehouse Records.
Oar Folkjokeopus closed on March 31, 2001.
TREEHOUSE RECORDS
Mark Trehus opened a store at the same site with the name Treehouse Records.