John Otto Young is a Connecticut based musician, keyboardist, and singer/songwriter with a wide variety of musical preferences. His style demonstrates an ability to cross from rock, blues and R&B to pop, country and Americana, while retaining his own musical approach, whether as band member or as a solo artist.
John started his musical journey as a child, taking accordion lessons for many years. He transitioned to piano, organ, electric piano, and synths as a teenager and was strongly influenced by many British Invasion groups. He played in several local groups in the 60s and 70s. As life became more mainstream (marriage, job, kids, house, grad school), music moved to the background as a hobby, but it was still the activity he loved the most.
In 1989, John and some of his musical friends got together and formed the Center Street Band. Led by Howie Russell, the group made the decision to concentrate on original music and released two locally successful albums, “Reason for Living” in 1993 and “Take you for a Ride” in 1995, leading the way to opening gigs for the Marshall Tucker Band, Blue Oyster Cult, Molly Hatchett, and others. The band parted ways in 2009. Along the way, John had the pleasure of doing a couple of gigs with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Hilton Valentine, guitarist for the Animals.
In 2011, John was offered the keyboard chair with Howard Eldridge (former lead singer for the Matt “Guitar” Murphy Band) and the Soul Potatoes. The band is currently under a hiatus. In recent years, John also played several gigs with New England Music Hall of Fame member, Paul Gabriel.
During this time, John never lost his love of songwriting, and in 2019 he released his first solo album titled “Sunset Tour”, which is available on most streaming services. He has since released a couple of singles, also available on most streaming services. And he is working on a second album, which he hopes to release later in 2024.
Also, during the pandemic, John decided to spend some time working on his vocals and learning a variety of cover tunes. He is now concentrating on adding solo performances and possibly some collaborations with other local artists to his repertoire. For more information about John’s music, check out his music page at https://johnottoyoung.com/music/ .