Eddie Young
Roots & Soul Music, Living Roots Festival, Jazz on Wolastoq Festival
The Harvey NB native, Eddie (nee Edmund) Young is a happily married father of four who now calls Fredericton home. Like most folks of a similar demographic, he developed a ear for music during those middle-high school years. As he got older, Eddie started to find himself attending concerts in and around the Fredericton area, which unbeknownst to him at the time, was laying a foundation for his future endeavours. His path led him to Toronto, where Eddie did the most to soak up the energy and atmosphere of big city life, and the wealth of live music that existed there. For the next couple of years Eddie bounced around the Atlantic provinces building his trade certification, and eventually found himself back in Ontario in the early aughts with a growing family.
Over the next six years, Eddie’s family continued to grow in Ontario and he still took in live shows whenever possible. In 2009, he and his wife made the decision to return to New Brunswick where they could properly welcome the forthcoming additions to their family. Between full time work, 4 kids, and temporarily living with his in-laws in a 3 bedroom townhouse, it was a struggle to find the time and energy to indulge in the live music scene. It wasn’t until Eddie and his family found a new home to call their own, that he could let the concert bug bite again. The only problem (aside from time and energy) was the fact that the local live music scene was in the midst of a downturn, not as many rooms were hosting shows, and not enough people were supporting the shows that were going on, things were looking rather bleak.
Rather than throw a pity party for the paltry music scene, Eddie had a better idea and decided to get involved with the Nashwaak Music Festival and brought his enthusiasm and excitement to the festival’s main programmer Mike Arnold with whom Eddie developed a solid friendship through their mutual love of music. In the subsequent three years that followed, the wealth of knowledge Eddie amassed would be invaluable in the coming years. After being approved for a Habitat for Humanity home, and in his day job Eddie transitioned into a sales role with his company, and discovered a love of public interaction. With this Eddie placed another brick onto his growing foundation, both literally and figuratively. With their new home, Eddie and his family decided to fling open the doors and host the occasional house show as there were minimal venue options and a wealth of eager artists happy to perform. As the popularity of these shows increased, it was time to find a new room to host the performances, and in 2015 Grimross Brewery in Fredericton offered up a space for Eddie to present his house show series (sans house). Word of mouth spread and soon enough, the local Roots & Soul music promotions was hosting 2-3 shows a week of Canada’s best talent. From these shows, Eddie has since started booking shows for these artists across the Maritimes and through trial and error amassed his own PA sound system and has also started programming music at Various locations. Just like any pebble you kick down a hill, it just picks up moss and continues to grow at an alarming rate.
In 2016, the first Living Roots festival was staged in a 7 smaller rooms/venues around the Fredericton area, in total: 30 acts came to play the inaugural year of Eddie’s festival. In 2024 the festival seen more then 75 acts on 15 stages around Fredericton. The music industry is rather fickle when it comes to financial viability, but with some modest success and a boatload of passion, Eddie continues to bring some of the finest talent East and allows these artists to share their talents and passions with those of us lucky enough to attend one of these heartfelt events. Eddie continues to build and foster the many relationships he has made (and continues to make) while he brings us some undeniably great music.
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Roots & Soul Music hosts shows locally in the Fredericton area at various venues. We also serve as a booking agent to many local artists as well as internationally touring artists.
Both festivals are urban multi venue festivals in downtown Fredericton.
Living roots is all genre and we are heading into year 10 jazz on Wolastoq focuses on jazz but includes, Soul, R & B, instrumental, fusion and world music we are heading into year 3.