Hersey (born John
Michael Runowicz, May 7,1962, Oxford, New Jersey) started his musical
career in the late 1970s as lead singer and guitarist in Shale, a rock/top
40 cover band that eventually moved on to performing new wave style
original songs on the New Jersey college circuit.
In 1983 Shale
disbanded and Hersey moved to New York City where he sang his tunes in the
folk clubs of Greenwich Village while working on a degree in music
composition at New York University. Upon graduation, he tried his hand at classical guitar but eventually
returned to his rock and roll roots. By the end of the 80s he was playing
guitar with New York garage band
Love Planet Janet. When that group broke up in the early 90s, he had a
one year stint with Liquid Scintillation Cocktail, a group led by Barry
Smith of Ice Nine fame.
Meanwhile, since
1987 Hersey had been working steadily with legendary rhythm and blues
vocal group Speedo and the Cadillacs. He started out as their guitarist
and eventually became second tenor and musical director as well. And all
the while Hersey had been writing songs and doing a few scattered solo
gigs. Then in 1995, he released a solo acoustic album called “Bare Bones”
and returned to the NYC club circuit in earnest with his own band.
In 1999 he
founded Chordophone Records and released “Soup Du Jour” which Good
Times Magazine called “a strongly eclectic and seamless collection.”
(He has subsequently re-released all his recordings previous to this one
on Chordophone as well.) In 2003 he released “Whirligig.” In reviewing
this record, independisc.com drew comparisons to “Elvis Costello as
well as East Side Story era Chris Difford/Glenn Tilbrook, Robyn Hitchcock,
Ron Sexsmith … and mid-70s troubadour Bob Dylan – to name a few.”
On November 1,
2004 Chordophone Records released the new Speedo and the Cadillacs album
“Mr. Lucky,” a CD that Hersey co-produced, and for which he wrote the
songs, played guitar and sang. The record, which has been receiving
consistent airplay on several doo-wop radio programs, garnered these words
from destinationdoowop.com: “Got the new CD – it’s terrific! I
love the new material. You just don’t see that very often with doo-wop
and oldies groups.”
In addition,
in January of 2006 Hersey (masquerading as John Michael Runowicz)
completed a PHD in ethnomusicology at New York
University. The title of his dissertation is “Echo and Harmony: Race,
Nostalgia and the doo-wop/oldies community.”
On September 15, 2007 Hersey
released a new CD of original material entitled "How Am I Here?" - a fresh
collection of lyrical and expressive roots rock with a contemporary
sensibility.
