The Coffeehouse Series presents Clarence Spady & Tom Martin

The thirteenth concert in the Coffeehouse Series will take place on Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, with CLARENCE SPADY & TOM MARTIN performing at Anomaly Craft Brewing, 135 West Front Street, in Berwick, Pa. Sponsored by the Berwick Arts Association, with booking and sound by The Exchange, the Coffeehouse Series features regional, national, and international musicians in this intimate venue at 7 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month. No cover charge.

Previously known as A Perfect Blend, Anomaly Brewing has added craft beer to the same great food and same great family.

You won’t find better music anywhere!

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Clarence returns to Berwick, bringing his favorite harmonica player along! By any standard, Clarence Spady embarked on his musical odyssey at an uncommonly tender age. Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Clarence began playing guitar when he was only five years old due to encouragement from two guitarists in his immediate family, his father (also named Clarence) and his Uncle Fletchey. “In the beginning, I really didn’t work hard. God gave all of us a gift,” Clarence says. “It was just innate.” The family Blues band jammed every weekend at his uncle’s pad in New Jersey. 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. Working with John Pougiese, the musical director, was like going to Berklee for two years, because he learned horn arrangements, harmony, rhythm and the chord progressions he still uses today. From there, he joined Pennsylvania-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, Clarence played music at night and began writing his own originals.

By the mid-‘90s, the success of his first album, “Nature of the Beast”, helped influence his nomination for a 1997 W.C. Handy Award for Best New Blues Artist. The record had legs, and Clarence 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, exposing countless tourists from all over the world in search of an authentic Blues experience to Clarence’s sound.

His sophomore release, “Just Between Us”, garnered a 2009 Blues Music Award nomination for Soul Blues Album of the year. Now available for order and download, “Surrender”, Clarence’s latest release, is a strikingly personal collection of nine tracks, including seven original compositions. A retrospective of his life and career, this pivotal album bridges the challenges of a past plagued by addiction with the bright promise of a blossoming future. A 12-page collectible booklet of musical history, photos and song information is included with each CD.

For more information about Clarence, visit clarencespady.com.