Sorry to hear about your spruce :-( Foliage looks a lot like a couple of my large birdnest spruces. Wonder if this is the same thing. They are extremely low maintenance once established; mine are in about 3/4 sun and have done quite well for nearly 30 years.

Is it getting too much summer sun maybe? Was the rootball well watered in? How did you prepare the hole? Any manure or potting soil added? Did you take some of the foliage off right before/after planting? That can take some of the stress off the root system and help with the shock of transplanting, worth the temporary sacrifice of size.

To save the plant you have, may be best to lay off the water for a little while and shade it somehow until things cool off. Also you'll want to prune carefully, removing the dead foliage so that the plant can devote all of its energies to the living branches.

Sorry if these questions/suggestions are basic; not knowing your experience level it is safer to risk asking basic questions of an experienced gardener than assuming the opposite.

Thanks for the info. It is shaded most of the day. I believe it gets about an hour or two early in the morning. I don't understand what a rootball being watered in is but when I plant something I dig a large hole usually twice the size of the pot I am planting. I water the hole well and mix the dirt I am replacing with some potting soil/mulch.

I will prune off the dead stuff and watch it carefully. Thanks,
JR