Photo by Kensie Wallner

New Mama in Town

By Neil Schloesser
Contributing Writer

Mother’s has opened a new store in Fargo. The new store is located in the strip mall at 1621 S. University Drive.

“There is a demand for records again so we wanted to have a good selection of records and a good selection of CDs,” said owner Brady Bredell. “It’s hard to do that with one location. The store in Moorhead will be about 70 percent CDs, 30 percent records while this location will be 70 percent records, 30 percent CDs. We’re focusing more on records at this location. [We are] trying to go back to our roots slightly, [we] painted it red and white to look like the original barn Mother’s was in.”

Mother’s Records was started in approximately 1970 by two men who, according to Bredell, were not running the business well. Bredell’s father, Dan Bredell bought the business and turned it into the iconic Fargo-Moorhead business that it has become. The store with its familiar yellow sign, really began with Dan Bredell’s purchase. It was under his guidance that the business once landed on the cover of Billboard Magazine in 1982 as the fastest growing record store in the United States. At one time the business had 8 locations in the region. According to Bredell, Mother’s allowed Dan to become a concert promoter and in 1978 he helped promote Dakota Jam ’78 which held the record for largest concert attendance until Garth Brooks performed at the Fargodome in the 1990s.

“[The] most famous location was in a red church or barn,” Bredell said, “it was a church that looked like a barn and that was about a block west of Steve’s Package on the same street we had our location that was in that strip mall, the one everyone would turn around in when cruising Broadway.”

Dan Bredell, who is now retired, sold the business to his son Brady in 2008 when they moved to their current location on Main Avenue in Moorhead and still occasionally works the counter. Bredell had the idea to open a Fargo location when he took over but with the economy where it was, he had to wait.
The current location is located near a tattoo parlor, a comic book store, a salon, and three public schools are within walking distance.

“There are a lot of cool businesses around,” Bredell said. “Just look at the location and look at the set-up and look at the lighting; it’s the kind of place you’d expect to find a record store.”

In addition to records and CDs the store will sell novelty and gifts. There will be an 18 and over room, and more than 200 “completely different posters from the other store….except maybe half a dozen of the main ones that every store has,” Bredell said.

There will also be hemp jewelry and a large selection of black light products. The store opened March 9.

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