Country · Soul · Americana · Blues
The Blackwater family, in harmony
Jocassee Valley Blue is a family of singers and musicians whose music is built around shared history, shifting lead voices and the kind of harmony that only really works when people know one another inside out.
At the centre of the group are the Blackwater family.
There is no permanent lead singer. One song may belong to Hannah Blackwater, another to her younger brother Zachary, while the rest of the family move around them in harmony. On other songs, older brother Caleb Blackwater or sister Sadie Blackwater may step forward.
That changing centre is part of the group’s identity. Jocassee Valley Blue is not built around one star. It is a family ensemble, and the song goes to whoever is best placed to tell it.
Caleb Blackwater, the eldest sibling, plays bass and provides one of the anchors of the group’s sound. Hannah Blackwater is one of its principal voices, moving easily between country, soul and Americana. Sadie Blackwater plays guitar and adds both harmony and occasional lead vocals. The youngest sibling, Zachary Blackwater, brings another distinctive lead voice to the family.
The fifth member is Eli Mercer, Hannah’s husband and the group’s drummer. He is the only core member who is not a Blackwater, though by now that distinction matters far less to the family than it does on paper.
The name Jocassee Valley Blue comes from the landscape of the Jocassee region and from the Oconee bell, the delicate pink-and-white wildflower closely associated with the Jocassee Gorges.
For the group, the flower became a natural symbol: small, distinctive, deeply rooted in one particular landscape and easy to overlook unless you know where to look.
That same idea runs through the music.
Jocassee Valley Blue draw on country, soul, Americana, blues and old-fashioned family harmony, but the sound changes depending on who is standing at the microphone. Hannah may carry a song of heartbreak or resilience. Zachary may bring a rougher country edge. Sadie may soften the arrangement with guitar and harmony. Caleb holds the whole thing together from the bass, while Eli drives it from behind the kit.
Their songs are about ordinary lives: love that lasts, love that fails, family loyalties, regret, home, distance and the things people continue to carry long after they thought they had left them behind.
Different voices tell different stories.
The family remains the same.
Jocassee Valley Blue — the Blackwater family, in harmony.