Clarence Spady

Blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter Clarence Spady incorporates influences spanning jazz, rock, Latin, and soul music into his sophisticated style. Onetime leader of the West Third Street Blues Band, he continued to perform and develop his craft throughout his life, although full-length solo recordings have only appeared every dozen years so, beginning with 1996's Nature of the Beast. The Blues Music Award-nominated Between Us saw release in 2008, with the autobiographical Surrender eventually following in 2021. Born in 1961 in New Jersey and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Spady would sit on his father's lap and watch him play guitar until bedtime. Young Spady began playing at the age of five, and his passion for the blues took hold early on. Meanwhile, he grew up singing gospel music in church, and outside of church he was introduced to acts like James Brown, the Isley Brothers, and Jimi Hendrix on New York City radio. He soon played his first show, with his father, older brother, aunt, and uncle at the Paterson Elks Club in New Jersey. He counts B.B. King and Albert Collins among his main blues mentors, and throughout his formative years, Spady performed with various rock and gospel groups, honing his chops in the hope that one day he would lead his own blues band. After he graduated from high school in 1979, Spady spent most of the 1980s with touring R&B band A Touch of Class, then with the Greg Palmer Band, which opened for major touring acts like the Temptations, the Four Tops, and the Spinners. After getting off the road in the late '80s, Spady played lead guitar in several Scranton-area blues bands and directed the Shiloh Baptist Church Choir. By the early '90s, he was ready to lead his own group and formed the West Third Street Blues Band. With roots put down in Scranton, he worked as a union excavator by day and on music at night, including writing his own original songs. Much of the material on Spady's independently released debut album, 1994's Nature of the Beast, was drawn from his personal experiences with drugs -- a habit he picked up after high school and had dropped by this time -- as well as with relationships. Featuring contributions from Mark Hamza on organ and bass, and Shorty Parham and Steve Shiposh on drums, the LP drew critical praise from all corners of the blues world, received radio airplay, and allowed Spady to tour clubs and festivals up and down the East Coast. A deal with Evidence Music was formalized in February 1996, with the company agreeing to remaster and repackage Nature of the Beast, and Spady was cited by Living Blues magazine as one of the "Top 40 Under 40" blues players to watch in the future. After touring internationally, the follow-up, Just Between Us, eventually arrived in 2008 on Severn Records. Co-produced by Spady and David Earl, it included appearances by a dozen guests (including the Fabulous Thunderbirds' Steve Gomes). Just Between Us was nominated for a Blues Music Award for Soul Blues Album of the Year in 2009. The guitarist moved to Nola Blues Records when it came time to release a soul-infused third album that reflected on his life and career. Titled Surrender, its key personnel included guitarist Adam Schultz, keyboardist Scott Brown, and bassist John Ventre, among other contributors, including two tracks with harpist Tom Martin. It saw release in May 2021. Soon after, the non-album track "If Only We Could" won a Silver Medal ("Outstanding Achievement") in the blues category at the Global Music Awards.
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