John Cruz

Growing up on Oahu, John absorbed traditional island music, the driving inspiration for his sound. Although John grew up in a musical family, it was during his 12 years on the East Coast that he developed his own style as a singer-songwriter. He cut his musical teeth in subways, coffeehouses and bars in New York's Greenwich Village, and attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where theatre and dance strengthened his command of the stage. John returned to Hawaii, where in 1996 he released his self-produced album, Acoustic Soul, which made a commercial impact like few other recordings in Hawaiian musical history, spawning the hits "Shine On," "Sitting in Limbo" and "Island Style".