A 2007 Hall of Fame inductee at the Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Music Awards (Sammys), Hagan has been on the Salt City music scene for more than 25 years, most of that time spent with Stroke, where he handles vocal and bass duties, although he has also performed solo dates for the past 11 years. While Stroke’s main focus is James Brown-like funk, Hagan likes to sing the hollow body acoustic at times to pour a little soul through just his voice and the six strings of his guitar. He has recorded more than 35 original tunes, which have appeared on his numerous solo and Stroke CDs, and he plans on sharing the creative experience with the Jazz Central crowd.
Hagan explained the reason why he ventured off from Stroke’s comfort zone. “I purposefully did it because it intimidated me,” he said. “I was wondering how I was going to fill all that area with sound that would be missing from a band setting, but I realized all you needed was a voice and guitar. Sometimes less is more.”
This will be Hagan’s first time at Jazz Central, although he regularly plays solo at Burritt’s Cafe in Weedsport, as well as weddings, church functions, coffee houses and a few dates at Shifty’s on Burnet Avenue. Hagan noted that there seem to be more solo performers sitting in at local venues, and that a burgeoning scene might be happening in Syracuse.
“It could be because of the economy,” he surmised. “Bars might not be able to afford to pay whole bands these days, but a lot of people seem to be really into the intimacy of being one-on-one with the performer. People don’t put the same pressure on musicians as they do with bands. When you play bars with bands, people want you to play {cover songs} they’re used to hearing, but when you’re solo, people want you to play your own material. As a matter of fact, if you play too many cover songs solo, people will start shouting out to play some original material.”
Although Hagan mentioned that “everybody in Syracuse knows I love Bob Dylan,” and also his affinity for artists such as Jackie Wilson and James Brown, most of the musicians that shaped the way he approaches music came from right here in Syracuse: Art Robbins, Chuck Sgroi, Elijah Nelson and Mark Hoffmann, to name a few.
“They were the first people I’d seen play,” he recalled. “These were the days before American Idol and instant celebrity. You had The Ed Sullivan Show and The T.A.M.I. Show, as well as a few others that you’d be able to see an artist here or there once a week. But to actually see musicians do their thing, you had to get out there and see what was happening.”
Hagan will be joined by Timothy Daniel, featured in a May 20, 2009, cover story in The New Times about the Belfry Studio in Lafayette he currently runs along with David Peters, and also Dru Rodgers, brother of series host Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers, also performing. All four musicians will take turns performing alone with guitar and telling tales of how tunes came to be, as well as accompanying each other on certain numbers.
Tickets are $10, available at the door or by calling 479-5299. The next installment of Words and Music will commence on Thursday, April 22, with Ryan Fitzsimmons as the featured musician.
