Information regarding barrelhouse pianist Charlie Spand stays extremely limited, since his 33 dispersed recordings constitute virtually the sole tangible sign that he once lived. While specifics about his birthplace remain uncertain, the 1940 track "Alabama Blues" alludes to Alabama as the site of his birth; scholars cite his prior renditions of "Mississippi Blues" and "Levee Camp Man" as persuasive indications of roots in the Delta. Spand first attracted notice within Detroit’s thriving boogie-woogie milieu of the 1920s, cutting no fewer than 25 sides for Paramount between 1929 and 1931 and joining Blind Blake on a version of "Moanin' the Blues." Eight additional tracks recorded in Chicago in 1940, with support from Little Son Joe and Big Bill Broonzy, mark the final documented evidence of his work; afterward Spand seems to have disappeared completely, and nothing further is known of his musical or personal life.
