Dwayne Haggins
Framingham native Dwayne Haggins is a rising star on the national music scene. The young lead singer who supports himself on acoustic guitar and rhythm guitar has been making the usual rounds toward greener pastures. He recently performed on a blues cruise with Joe Bonamassa, Keb Mo, and several other artists. The end of last year the Framingham, Massachusetts native was singed to the label verdict music.
Haggins did not become a musician until he turned 18 and was almost out of high school. The aspiring young musician saw Sturgill Simpson on The Conan O’Brien Show back in 2014, and became so inspired by the country legend’s performance that he wanted to play and sing music, suddenly becoming interested in country blues and soul.
“I think it was just the rabbit hole I ended up going down,” Haggins said. “From seeing Sturgill I went into Wayland Jennings, and the Johnny Cashes and the Johnny Paychecks of the world. I just kept going deeper and deeper. I still am.”
Haggins recently returned from Tennessee after completing the recording process for his third full length album, They Call Me Boston. That album will have the full band version of his latest acoustic single, “Line My Casket With Cannoli.”
Inspired by a night of humor between Haggins and his bass player, the song basically came out of nowhere.
“He’s just a ridiculous person,” Haggins said of his amicable four string buddy. “He’s always joking. It was like a tag of some joke or something he said that was funny. He tagged it with ‘Line My Casket With Cannoli.’ I’m like I’m immediately writing a song about that.”
From there, the young musician was fixated on developing ideas for his upcoming album. Haggins and his guitarist Ahren Shreeves, who has been with Haggins since 2019, were working on another country blues called “Lovely Time.”
“After we did that I was just inspired,” Haggins said. “The whole album of songs came like that. I was like ‘I have to get to work writing the next one.’ That was the title I took from my notes to work on first. They were probably the quickest songs I wrote.”
Haggins spent part of last February on a blues cruise, Keeping The Blues Alive At Sea VII, traveling from Miami, Florida to Ocho Rios, Jamaica, mingling and playing with super talented musicians.
“It was nice to meet so many talented musicians,” Haggins said. “I’d go hang in the artist lounge. Any number of them would walk in and just finding out how cool everybody was. There was nobody that I met that I heard was not that great a person. It was just nice to see so many musicians and to be inspired by them. Also: to play very great stages for that whole week. I love playing music no matter what, but a great stage is better than a bar.”
Haggins, who has followed Keb Mo’s music for a while, got to meet him as well as headliner Joe Bonamassa on the ship. Haggins biggest surprise was to be able to play with Jimmy Vivino, band leader from Conan O’Brien’s late night television show.
“I performed with him and thinking this is weird. Ten years ago I used to watch him religiously every night on that show,” the aspiring young musician said.
Dwayne Haggins publicity photo
Haggins realizes the importance of finding one’s own sound in the music industry, though he maintains he never consciously was looking for his own sound. He believes it just happened.
“If you’re an artist of any kind, and if you’re being one hundred percent yourself, you will always be a unique thing,” Haggins said. “You might sound similar or you might do something similar to someone else’s art. But, if you’re looking for your own sound, it does not come off as well. You can tell, usually. It’s not as genuine.”
During earlier recording sessions for his previous albums, Haggins based his songs on his life experiences, a familiar sources for most singer-songwriters. His debut album, Heavenly Rose, was required by his fan base, a following who wanted to have a document of his original songs. Sophomore album China Ruby was inspired by Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs And Englishmen album, as Haggins felt it was time to having a big band playing it live.
“We did it all ourselves and it didn’t cost a lot of money,” Haggins said. “That one was inspired by wanting to have a big band and five to eight singers. “
Haggins plays out in Framingham, Newburyport, Waltham, Medford, and somewhat in New Hampshire. Has the fan base of country, blues, and soul in Massachusetts and New Hampshire been a good launching pad for Haggins’ career?
“I would definitely say so,” Haggins said. “All the places I play seem to really appreciate country blues and soul or soul and blues. There are so many places to play in this area. I know from my traveling, any other states I’ve gone to, they’re not as able to gig so regularly, like all over this area, like an hour and a half, two hours from your house, and what people seem to like. I’ve been lucky with that.”
Dwayne Haggins
Late last year, Haggins was signed to Verdict Music based in Massachusetts. Verdict Music will be supporting him with digital distribution of his albums. Verdict Music, Haggins said, will also be helping him score some venues. The young artist will be traveling to gigs outside of New England, though he will be more focused on ramping up his presence in his home region.
“When I do travel, for whatever reason, I always try to find a gig in the states I am going to,” Haggins said. “When we were recording, we did a radio show in Knoxville called The Blue Plate Special. When I go through Nashville, I try to get a spot or something. I do book gigs out of the state every once in a while. But, I don’t want to focus on tours yet. I’d rather not spend so much money doing a tour at this time. It’s also harder to get the band everywhere if we were doing a big tour right now.”
Haggins has spent his eight years in the music industry without having expectations. He merely enjoyed what he was doing, like going along for a fun ride. He has not yet focused on making long range plans. He’d like to perform at summer festivals, regularly, and the Framingham musician would like to be opening bigger tours for bigger artists. “I think those should be next. I’m pretty sure they are,” Haggins said.
