A new museum in Sandusky County is turning a working recording studio into a walk through local music history. The Sounds of Sandusky County Museum, housed at the Ohio Recording Company in the Fremont area, traces the story of Courier Records and Brownwood Studio, the labels and rooms where generations of area musicians put their songs on record. The museum holds its opening day on Saturday, Oct. 24, and will be open on Saturdays by appointment.
The centerpiece may be its most unlikely artifact: a mixing board once used by Jimmy Buffett that was later seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration in a drug bust. Willis, who runs the studio and assembled the museum, is quick to note the board was not taken from Buffett himself, but from a later buyer. It still sits with its side panels off, the way it arrived, a piece of studio equipment with a story no replica could match.
The collection reaches back to the early days of Courier Records in Fremont. Among the artifacts is a 1965 Beach Boys contract signed by Bob Brown and Carl Wilson, brother of Brian Wilson. Visitors will also find memorabilia from vocal group The Lettermen and items tied to garage band The Kingsmen, whose recording of “Louie Louie” became one of the most recognizable singles of its era.
Some of the most personal finds never left the building. Willis discovered a lost recording by Toledo jazz great Cliff Murphy, recorded by Bob Brown, while clearing out an old closet at the studio. The exhibits also recall former Sandusky County Commissioner Charlie Schwochow, who long before public office played in a country music family band that recorded at Brownwood Studio after Brown moved Courier Records and reopened in Gibsonburg.
The Ohio Recording Company is not only a museum, however. Music is still produced there today, linking the new exhibits to a living studio. Toledo rockabilly band The Palatinos recorded their single “High Strangeness” at the studio before playing it at last summer’s Great Lakes Rockabilly Road Trip Music Festival, proof that the rooms holding decades of memorabilia are still making new recordings.
Beyond the studio walls, the museum covers the wider soundtrack of Sandusky County life. Displays take in local radio station WFRO, Bob Seger performing in 1973 at Fremont Ross High School, and the Rainbow Garden. They also revisit the Boogie Hill festivals, remembered as Ohio’s Woodstock, which drew crowds of more than 60,000 fans.
Along the way, visitors can see original vinyl records, reel-to-reel tapes and analog soundboards, the hands-on technology behind the music on display. For Willis, the point is preservation before more of those stories disappear: the photographs, tapes and memories held by local families document careers and performances that might otherwise be lost. Appointments for Saturday visits can be arranged through the Ohio Recording Company.