April 24–May 1, 1997

critic pick|blues

But the 36-year-old singer/songwriter from Patterson, NJ, honed his skills playing in the churches of Scranton and bars all over Pennsylvania. Spady's rhythmic pump can now be found on his debut disc, The Nature of The Beast (Evidence).Influenced by guitar masters like Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix, and soulsters like the Temptations, the Spinners and the Isley Brothers, Spady's sound is as frisky and funky as it is sweet and sorrowful.

Playing in church choirs and hanging with gospel acts as player or director gave him a grand sense of direction and musicality that shows through on even the simplest moments of Nature. A simple rave like "Baby Bay Baby" becomesPhilip Glass-like in its repetitive phrasing. Willie Dixon's "Built For Comfort" becomes more than a nod to sexual yearning.

Behind him is a crack band of musicians who sound like they were born to play along to this guy's demons. Check out sax cat Tom "T-Bone" Hamilton and the moody Hammond organ of Mark Hamza if you really want to hear blood brethren atwork.

Spady's music is informed by a brief period of youthful drug-addled cynicism he quickly rose above. Spady addresses addiction and salvation on a trio of tunes. The boogie of "Answer To The Man" talks about the party days that led him awayfrom gospel and his guitar and broke up a marriage as well. "Change My Way of Living" pushes through that trouble with a desire to clear a path to salvation. The sexy wah-wah'd shuffle of "Picture of Love" sensually cries out forsalvation's next shot, the next big break. And the title tune, a blues ballad, aches as it lays claim to a history of guilty pleasures and the need to move past them. Listen hard and you can imagine Prince tackling the very same theme. Not unlikeMarvin Gaye's Here My Dear, Spady's The Nature of The Beast is one helluva dark and soulful testimony to a love and life gone wrong and a desire to pursue all happiness with the raw power of soul music behind him.

Clarence Spady, Fri., April 25, 9 p.m., Tony Clark's, 121 S. Broad St., 772-9238.

— a.d. amorosi