Roots Music Shop owner Ryan Larsen is all about fostering a strong local community. In addition to a full complement of instruments, repair services and vinyl, his shop offers a summer music education program called “Roots Ed.” Participants in the program — aimed at 12-20 year-old students — learn to play an instrument, perform in a band with others and are schooled in roots music heritage.

“The idea is to teach young kids about how expressing yourself through art, writing and music as [a way of] confronting what ails you is liberating,” Larsen says.

Since opening Roots Music in 2012, Larsen has poured 25 years of experience as a musician and a lifetime of Lincoln community membership into his business, gearing its products and services toward both aspiring and working local musicians.

We visited with Larsen at the shop’s central 19th & Q location one recent afternoon. Watch below as he talks about leaving one shop to start his own, its collaboration with other local businesses and the importance of fostering a local music legacy.

For more information on Roots Music Shop’s products and services, visit its website here.