This Old Record Sold at Meyer Bros. Is Back Home On Ohio Street

James Harmon, who owns Jammin' Nuggets Music with Deana Taylor, likes to say he has the coolest customers. And one of those cool customers turned up last week with some vintage recordings that were sold in the same building on Ohio Street where his store is located.

It's a record that James believes was pressed, or imprinted at the old Meyer Brothers Appliance Store, 115 S. Ohio. Today it's the home of Jammin' Nuggets Music. The customer gave James twelve of the records.

One of them has a handwritten label indicating the song on the disc is "Mother, The Queen of My Heart" a song recorded by many including Ernest Tubb, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Merle Haggard and the Strangers. The first recording of the song was by Jimmie Rodgers in 1932 according to the Second-Hand Songs website.

James and Deana aren't the only people to get their hands on discs from Meyer Brothers. A search of the Sedalia Memories Facebook page for "Meyer Bros." turned up a post by Sedalia author and historian Becky Imhauser from October of 2020.

She ran across one of these records and was able to play it on an old Victrola and found out the record contained some words from Eddie Arnold and her favorite World War II song "I'll Be Seeing You."

James told me he thinks people could go over to Meyer Bros. and have them put a couple of songs on these blank discs and take them home to listen to. He told me these types of recordings were available from the 1930s to the 1960s.

It's a concept, that in the compact disc era, almost made a comeback. I wrote an article for my journalism class in 1989 talking about how record companies and record stores were looking at a concept that would put kiosks in record stores that would allow people to essentially burn a mix CD. Kind of a pre-iTunes, iTunes. But that's a blog for another day.

I've reached out to Capitol Records to see if a company historian or archivist may be able to shed some more information on the records for us. A couple of things we know for sure. Some of the appliances you could get at Meyer Brothers included phonographs, radios, record players, and these discs.

If you know anything about these records or heard stories about family members heading to Meyer Brothers for a phonograph, record player, or records. Drop me a note, I'd love to update this story with more information.

James and Deana are giving two of the records to the building owner and will display the rest in their store.

I also think it's cool that today, just like the old days, you can head over to 115 S. Ohio Street and pick up some vintage vinyl. And a record player or turntable to play them on if you need one.