For the Record: Travis Tyson, Music Collector and Enthusiast

At 8:30 p.m. every night, Travis Tyson puts his son to bed and selects one or two albums from his home collection. Jazz records have been constantly circling his roundtable in 2020, so he says he’ll often reach for that genre first. If it’s a Saturday night, he’ll choose something that’s “more rocking.” If it’s a Tuesday, the night’s selection will be more mellow. He enjoys sipping a drink with his wife Megan as the two become lost in the music.

“It’s like the ritual of putting it on the turntable and flipping it over halfway through, it just really became something I’m attracted to,” Tyson says.

This year has been strange, but through quarantine and statewide lockdowns, the music enthusiast says he’s found comfort in his nighttime routine. In the basement of his Cape Girardeau home, he’s organized his collection of nearly 3,800 albums for nightly listening. Jazz, metal and class country music are organized into their own categories; he says those genres are so polarizing, they deserve separate designations.

He collects all types of music media, from cassette tapes to records to CDs. It all began with an early fascination with his parents’ stereo from the 1970s, he says. His mom purchased the first cassette tape he ever owned — Michael Jackson’s “Bad” — and his love for music has grown ever since.

“I became obsessed with music as a young person, and basically, that’s when collecting something meant something to me,” he says.

His favorite of the collection is the band Love’s album “Forever Changes.” It’s a beautiful pop album from the ‘60s, he says, and he loves it just as much as when he first heard it 20 years ago. He’s attracted to music with strong emotional connections — such as hope or despair — as well as challenging musical arrangements.

The most vital part of music is its connection to memories, Tyson says. Much of the albums he enjoys are connected to personal memories he’s created with those closest to him. It even applies to the equipment he uses to enjoy the music, he says.

Close to 10 years ago, Megan gave him a Musichall 2.2 turntable, which the couple often uses to listen to records together. Shortly after he opened the gift, Tyson says he asked her hand in marriage.

He finds himself searching for old tunes he might have missed or new meanings in longtime favorites. The albums he enjoys most are those that require multiple listens; he loves digging deeper into the meaning behind the songs.

Some of his favorite albums include “Marquee Moon” by Television, “The Beat” by Paul Collins and “Piper at the Gates of Dawn” by Pink Floyd. He often collects psychedelic rock, classic power pop, indie rock and lots of jazz. His equipment is a mix of modern and vintage, with his most significant stereo being an older Pioneer setup. It’s a life-enriching and rewarding hobby, he says, one that has helped through quiet quarantine times.

He’s an active buyer of vintage records, often visiting record shops in St. Louis or online retailers to add to his basement collection. While he said he’s exhausted much of the inventory in Cape Girardeau antique shops in the past 20 years, he still enjoys buying and selling records whenever possible. He adds that anyone who’s selling interesting records can find him at Primo Vino, where he is the general manager.

Streaming online music is strictly prohibited in his basement — he says if a person can’t find tunes they enjoy in his extensive collection, they probably don’t like music. He shares his hobby with friends and family — while he says he’s an “equal opportunity friend,” a good taste in music doesn’t hurt. He especially enjoys listening with his wife and 4-year-old son, who is also a budding music lover.

While he enjoys quite the range of music, he says he can go without Dave Matthews. He used to engage in debates concerning what constituted good or bad music, but he says he’s learned it all comes down to personal taste.

“We definitely live in a time where music seems very important to people; it kind of just helps them keep your head up,” he says of people who have differing music tastes. “If that’s how they do it, great! Just don’t bring it to my house.”