CLARENCE SPADY

CLARENCE SPADY
The former W.C. Handy Nominee for Best New Artist '97, singer/songwriter/guitarist Clarence Spady has been an underground
marvel since his initial and only worldwide release Nature of the Beast in '96. He received international recognition as one of Living
Blues Magazine's “Top 40 Blues Artist Under 40” and received the ’98 France Blues Trophie for Best International Blues Artist of the
Year.
Once described as "the future of the blues" by Bill Dahl, of the Chicago Tribune, his
sound is now even more distinguishable. Having played in Hong Kong, Austria,
Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and all parts of the U.S., his rapidly growing fan
base is beginning to spread the word of his moving guitar play, rough street-edged
vocals, songwriting and live improvisations.
Born, Clarence Sloan Spady on July 1, 1961 in Paterson, New Jersey, Spady’s dad
Clarence “Pops” Sr. moved the family to Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1966 to a safer
suburb and a secure job at the army depot. But that didn’t stop the family from
traveling to New Jersey every weekend to play with Clarence’s Uncle Fletchy’s R&B
band. Spady would sit on his dad's lap and watch him play guitar until bedtime.
Spady got his own first guitar at age four; blues fever caught him early on, and he's
never let it go. His first show came later that year, when he was six, playing with his
father, older brother, aunt and uncle at the Paterson Elks Club in New Jersey.
Like any good bluesman, Spady was raised singing in church, which he attended
every Sunday with his mother. Unlike other Southern bluesmen who were raised
just a generation earlier, the blues were not forbidden in the Spady household; quite
the contrary, they were encouraged, since his father and other relatives played the
music. Spady sang gospel music in church and took his cue from the secular music
of the day played on the radio around New York City, including James Brown, the
Isley Brothers and Jimi Hendrix. He counts B.B. King and Albert Collins among
his main blues mentors, and throughout his formative years, Spady played 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 hit the road with regional groups and spent most of the 1980s 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
1987, Spady played lead guitar in several Scranton-area blues bands and also directed the Shiloh Baptist Church Choir. By the early
1990s, Spady decided to lead his own band.
He’s been startling people with his amazing guitar playing ever since. The Jazz Café in Hong Kong touted Clarence as “a soulful
singer and hot guitarist who takes the blues of B.B. King and Albert Collins and mixes it with the soul of Ray Charles and some funk
of James Brown”
In short, Clarence is one of those artists that can actually move people. He brings out a range of emotions in you throughout his
performances and recordings. Clarence continues to wow audiences all over the country . . . from his annual compelling and emotional
benefit performances at Boulder Colorado’s Concert for Planet Earth to his regular appearances at NYC’s Terra Blues, at his home
base in Pennsylvania at the River Street Jazz Café or at a myriad of small jazz and blues clubs and festivals, he pushes forward writing
and playing new music.
Clarence’s debut for the Philadelphia-based Evidence Music, Nature of the Beast, received critical praise from all corners of the
blues world, and he signed to a multi-album deal with the label in 1996.
Much of the material on Nature of the Beast was drawn from his personal experience with drugs and his former relationships with
women. Although he's long since dropped the drug habit he picked up in his years after high school, the experiences provided him
with fodder for some of the songs on his debut.