John Otto Young

John Otto Young is a Connecticut native keyboardist, musician, and songwriter who has been playing and recording in a number of projects over the last 6 decades. He started his musical journey in second grade when he started taking accordion lessons and progressed to playing a variety of keyboards in several local bands throughout high school and college. In the mid-70s, John married the love of his life, raised two boys, coached little league, worked as a software developer and IT director, and in general lived the normal American dream life, with music retreating to hobby status, but still his most fervent passion.

In 1989, John joined up with some friends to form the Center Street Band. While they also did some great cover music, they focused their efforts on songwriting and produced two locally successful albums in the mid 90’s, “Reason for Living”, and “Take You for a Ride”. The Center Street Band lasted for over 20 years, and remaining members still occasionally do reunion gigs. Since 2011, John has been the keyboardist with Howard Eldridge (former vocalist with Matt Guitar Murphy) and the Soul Potatoes, which also features Connecticut Blues Hall of Fame lifetime award winner, Paul Gabriel. Along the way, he has had the pleasure and honor of sharing the stage with some great musicians, including Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Hilton Valentine of the Animals, blues great Debbie Davies, and John Cafferty. With the Center Street Band, he opened for the Marshall Tucker Band, Blue Oyster Cult, Molly Hatchett, and God Street Wine.

Since retiring from his day job in 2015, John has devoted most of his time to his music, including songwriting, recording, doing session work, and playing live with the Soul Potatoes and other acts. As he puts it, “The best part of what I do now is collaborating with others. It’s inspiring, and unlike myself, it never gets old”.