Blackwater Rolling: The Rock and Roll Brotherhood

By Chris Manson
March 19, 2009 Issue

Blackwater didn’t name themselves after the Doobie Brothers’ number-one hit, but they do adhere to the classic rock manifesto. And unlike the Doobs, a couple of the guys really are brothers.

Gary Spaulding—the band’s harmonica player and backup percussionist-guitarist—says he and drummer Rob Clark were separated at birth. “Rob and I have the same father,” says Gary. “I was born back in 1954—I’m an old son of a gun—and my dad was in the service. After he divorced my mom, I never saw him. Through the years, I finally decided to try and find him. Around 1989, I found my dad up in Maine. It turned out I had two brothers—Michael lives in Texas—and a sister.”

The brothers finally met in 1991 and discovered they shared the same childhood passions. “We talked everyday for a long time and found out baseball and music were both our two favorite things,” says Rob. “We always said we’d get together and have a band someday.”

Last year, Gary and Rob’s sister Julie met bassist-vocalist Chris Clarke, and the two got married. “I was playing in Connecticut when they met,” says Gary. “Chris’ band was playing, too. When they got married, we came here for the wedding and got together to play for the first time at the Outpost in Freeport.” The Outpost is located on Blackwater Creek, hence the band’s name.

The band—Rob’s former Southern Remedy mate Jeb Stewart, rounds out the lineup on lead guitar—decided they would move down here and give it a go. By last September, all four had relocated, and the band has been going strong since October.

Chris is originally from Connecticut and paid his dues in big bands, jazz bands and just about any other kind of band you can imagine. He’s a huge fan of Kiss’ Gene Simmons. “I wouldn’t say I style myself after him, but I try to put on a show like he does—entertain people as much as possible.” His favorite bass players include Jaco Pastorius, and he admires any band that is “funky and bluesy.”

A typical Blackwater set includes timeless crowd pleasers like ZZ Top’s “La Grange,” a bluesy take on the Box Tops’ (and Joe Cocker’s) “The Letter,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Suzie Q,” and a pair of Jimi Hendrix classics—“Fire” and “Voodoo Chile.” They do a lot of Creedence and southern blues-rock songs. “We do cover songs,” says Jeb. “But we try to embellish everything with our own style.” All of the band members sing, and they play with more energy than many musicians half their ages.

“We like to get right in your face from the beginning,” says Jeb. “If we’ve got a good audience, we can really keep ‘em jumping. We don’t have a set list—we have a few treasures in our pocket we pull out at the appropriate time.”Jeb met Rob about two and a half years ago on a construction job. “I’ve jumped back into music with a passion for the last five years,” says Jeb, who first picked up a guitar at age 14. “We started out to see where it would go, and we haven’t looked back. We’re all about the same age, but this type of music transcends all ages.”

“People seem to dig us wherever we go,” says Rob. “They keep asking us to come back.”

“If you like us now, give us six months and you’ll really like us,” adds Chris.

Blackwater plays every Saturday afternoon at JamBone in Santa Rosa Beach from 1 to 5, and Friday nights at Steamboat. They will return to the Outpost March 29 from noon to 4 p.m. You’ll want to befriend these guys at www.myspace.com/southernremedyxxx. If you still need convincing, check out the band’s performance of Free’s immortal classic “All Right Now” at www.youtube.com/user/beachcomberdestin.

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