A brief history:
Broken Melody Records was started in May, 2025 in Urbana, OH by Melissa Lawson and Kevin Murray. There weren't many stores within an hour of Urbana, and Melissa and Kevin both saw a need within the community. Having been musicians and music lovers most of their lives, it felt right to share their passion with the place and the people they love.

Prepare yourself for
"A-NOT-SO-BRIEF-HISTORY-OF-KEVIN-AND-MELISSA."
(This is the music equivalent of a recipe website's pre-recipe story).

Let's go back.
Waaaaay back.
The year is 2010.
Kevin lives near Ohio State's campus and was writing music as Saint Bernard. At the time, he would name his songs after quotes from books he had been reading, because he was cool like that. At the time, he wrote a song about the ghosts of people he loved but didn't see anymore haunting him, which he named, "Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt"; a reference to Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five."

Melissa.
The year is 2014.
She is fresh out of a relationship and considering being haunted by the ghost of someone she loved, but wouldn't see anymore. The phrase, "Everything Was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt" rose into her brain, and so she shared the line with her dear friend Google.com. The mewithoutyou song of the same title wasn't good enough (apparently), so she kept searching. Result page 2, 3, and 4 flew by, but despite Kevin's poor SEO, she eventually discovered Saint Bernard's bandcamp page. 

Kevin, late at night, probably sitting in bed listening to mewithoutyou or something.
Gmail pings with a notification from bandcamp.

Kevin could not be more excited that someone, in the 4+ years he had been writing music, had actually listened to one of his songs.
In its entirety.
He responded.

Call your dentist to check for cavities, friends, because all that is just too sugary sweet.

And you're now probably asking:

"But 3rd-Person-Omniscient Writer, how does the name actually tie in? This is a lot of information for absolutely no reason."

Well, dear reader, if you had taken the time to go to the Saint Bernard bandcamp page, and listen to "Everything was Beautiful, and Nothing Hurt", you'd see that not only were you the first person in the last 4 years to do so, but you would have heard the lyrics:

"...and it's you, living there inside his bones.
And I feel that you've settled down and found a home.
And at night, you sing a broken melody.
Tried to leave, but you're stuck in perfect harmony."

2019.
Kevin drives to Little Rock, Arkansas in August to adopt an 8 year old St. Bernard named Moose. They bond quickly, and the entire family lives out their own version of the movie BEETHOVEN (1992), but without the dognapping subplot. 

(we removed a seat in the mini van so he could stretch out on the drive home)

2024.
Kevin and Melissa have now been married for 9 years, have 3 kids, and an old house in Urbana.

Moose passed away in 2022 at the age of 11, having spent his final years well loved.

 
One night, over malört-garitas, they joke about opening a record store, which had oddly been a dream of both of theirs for a long time. But then the joke stopped feeling like a joke, and both of them got that spark in their eye. The spark that says, "wait... we could actually do this." And because both of them have a unique kind of stubbornness that won't let good ideas die, they began setting out to build the shop in June of 2024, searching for storefronts before they even had inventory. 

2025.
The shop officially opened in May, thanks to the help of way too many people and other record store owners who want to see a thriving record collecting community throughout the state.
As an homage to him, Moose is now an integral part of our branding, and the name of the shop ties the entire history together.

Everything is beautiful.
Nothing hurts.

More moose.