Charlie Spand
Details on Spand's early history and later life is scant. What is known is that he recorded in excess of 20 tracks for the Paramount label between 1929 and 1931 and a further eight for OKeh Records in 1940. He was a friend and working partner of Blind Blake, with whom he recorded the classic Hastings Street and appeared on the Paramount sampler disc Home Town Skiffle. Spand's piano work was in the powerful Detroit style and his writing skills were considerable. His first recording Soon This Morning became something of a staple for blues pianists. Working mainly in Chicago he was known to artists such as Little Brother Montgomeryand Jimmy Yancey but after the war he disappeared. It is speculated, by Francis Wilford Smith, that Spand was born around the turn of the century in Ellijay, Georgia and retired to Los Angeles.