Joe Cerisano

Joe Cerisano, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and President of Outta' the Woods Records. He experienced his first taste of mainstream success as the frontman for the chart-making early 1980s rock band, Silver Condor and has gone on to appear as the featured vocalist on numerous other artists' albums, one-off recordings, and commercials since then.

Cerisano began performing professionally at the age of 14, being underage but still singing local speakeasys where liquor was sold in the dry state of West Virginia. Even before he was old enough to be in these clubs, he was singing with a succession of regional bands in the north central West Virginia area. At sixteen, he called Dave Coombs who was the leader of the biggest band in West Virginia, The Bonnevilles, who were the darlings of West Virginia University and who would travel out to New Jersey every summer to play in Somers Point. At seventeen, Joe was asked to join The Bonnevilles. It was the summer of 1968 when The Bonnevilles played seven night a week with matinees on Saturday and Sunday from 3PM to 2AM that Cerisano began earning his stripes as a real trouper. Coming home at the end of the summer called for a break. In the spring of 1969, Coombs called Joe again to possibly start another group which turned out to be Kabosse which eventually morphed into Elderberry Jak. Elderberry Jak secured a record deal with Kenny Rogers' brother Leland in Memphis. Cerisano moved to New Jersey and became a resident of Warren Township.

In the late 1970s, Joe Cerisano and his guitarist/co-leader Lee Fink had one of the top original groups in a sea of cover bands in the New Jersey rock club scene. R-Band drew large crowds due to their original songs, which was rare for the time. Playing seven nights a week took its toll on the band, so in December 1979, after a call from Earl Slick, Joe left NJ and headed out to California. Three months later, Joe and Earl formed the rock band Silver Condor, who would sign a very lucrative record deal with Columbia Records. The songs that secured this deal were all the songs that were written for R-Band back in NJ. The band's self-titled debut album, released in 1981, featured a top 40 hit, "You Could Take My Heart Away." After the breakup of Silver Condor, Joe returned to NYC in 1984.

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