Blues Clues: Clarence Spady

On a rainy fall night three years ago we took friends on the hour-long drive to Hartford Connecticut. The destination, Black-Eyed-Sally's, served southern style food that could make your heart stop just by looking at it. This particular night we were in route to enjoy some fantastic food and see an incredible blues guitarist we had only heard snippets of on the Internet.

We sat close to the stage. We had no idea what to expect. Often when we've heard something in snippets online it wasn't quite as good live. That certainly wasn't the case this time. Without introduction the band took the stage. Clarence, a wraith of a man, out front seemed as if he might double over under the weight of the guitar. And then he started to play. We were so mesmerized we actually stopped eating. It takes a lot to take my attention away from shrimp Creole and jasmine rice but the sounds coming from the stage were more than enough.

We, and everyone in the place, were enthralled. It was blues, and rock, and funk and jazz all rolled into one. The guitar was simply an extension of the man bending and whining out his soul for the world to hear. During a break we bought his CD, Nature Of The Beast, which was already a few years old. Clarence took the time to speak personally with everyone and sign the CD's they had purchased. He even welcomed a man with a digital recorder provided he could get a copy sent to him.

The one song that sealed the deal for me was a wailing rendition of Just My Imagination. No vocals just guitar conveying the mood across time and space. It was absolutely phenomenal. I had to know more. We listened to the CD all the way home and were blown away with not only the quality of the music but the honesty it was delivered with.

The next day I fired up the computer and started reading everything I could find. It seems Nature Of The Beast was released in 1996 to rave reviews from the blues community at large. They loved the funked up sound of old school blues with the smooth gospel quality vocals. They loved Clarence. They thought he was the heir apparent to B.B. King's throne. They waited and listened and they didn't hear anything again for 9 years and then there was buzz that there would be a new album in the summer of 2006.

It is now 2007 and still no new album. Unfortunately for his family and the future of the blues Clarence has succumbed to an addiction greater than the music that flows in him like so much water over the dam. Unable to keep up his self-control he continues to yo-yo in and out of using and rehabilitation. He is often late or absent for scheduled shows and on more than one occasion has showed up high or gotten high somewhere in the middle. On more than one occasion we have seen the band, thrown together just for the night, become lost in the shuffle trying to pick up hints from their would be leader.

I have never met a more honest and genuine musician than Clarence. He openly admits his short comings and even writes about them, Nature of the Beast is all about his life as an addict as is The Addiction Game on his Live at Grieco's CD. He makes no excuses for himself and tries his best to find his way back to his family, friends, and music. I have never met any single person so gifted and talented yet so lost and I hope I never do again.

If you ever have the opportunity, even the slightest hint of the opportunity, to see this man live I highly recommend you go. You will never see a more intensely genuine show of musical genius. You will never meet a more likeable man with a more pure soul. Nature Of The Beast is available on line at Amazon.com and it is well worth what ever you have to pay for it. If you are fortunate enough to come across a copy of Live At Grieco's you should get that at any cost as well.