Clarence Spady

Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Clarence Spady began playing guitar at age five due to encouragement from two guitarists in his family, his father (also named Clarence) and his Uncle Fletchey. The family blues band jammed every weekend. For his stage debut (also at age five), he played Tommy Tucker’s “Hi-Heel Sneakers” with the band at the local Elks Club, for a special close to the evening’s show.

During the early ‘80s, Clarence joined a touring R&B band, A Touch of Class. From there, he joined PA-based singer Greg Palmer’s band, and spent six years touring with that Top 40 R&B band. The dawn of the ‘90s brought a return to his roots, and he put together the West Third Street Blues Band in the unlikely town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the place he still calls home to this day. A union excavator by day, Spady played music at night and began writing his own originals.

By the mid-‘90s, the success of ‘Nature of the Beast’ helped influence his nomination for a 1997 W.C. Handy Award for Best New Blues Artist. Spady toured for six years behind that release. During that time, he also picked up what has become a standard monthly rotation at Terra Blues in New York City’s iconic Greenwich Village.

His sophomore release, Just Between Us, garnered a 2009 Blues Music Award nomination for Soul Blues Album of the year. We can all look forward to a new Clarence Spady album in 2021. Until then, “Surrender” gives us an exciting taste of what the future holds.