Freddie Vanderford, Last of the Piedmont Blues Artists

When Freddie was very young, he learned to play the harmonica from his grandfather.It was very Chicago-blues oriented, and he became quite good by the time he was a teenager. As he started playing in local places, people kept referring to a man Freddie hadn't heard of before. "You ain't heard nothing 'til you heard Peg Leg Sam".

Peg Leg Sam was an old time Piedmont Blues musician, who ran a Medicine Show for years. Freddie hadn't heard of him, because by the time Freddie was coming up, Peg's show had long since retired. His legend, however, had not. Any blues player in the region was compared to Peg. Or better to say it, no blues musician in the region could compare with Peg. He was the best. The tricks he could do with his harmonica were thrilling to audiences. It wasn't just his distinctive style of playing, it was his showmanship that made Peg great.

The more Freddie heard about Peg Leg Sam, the more he knew he had to meet him and learn from him. So Freddie began his quest to find Peg Leg.

Peg Leg Sam was known best for his song "Born To Bad Luck". When Freddie went down the side roads, past a place called "No Man's Land" in Union, a field which separated the white part of town from the black, he came upon an old man, sitting in his yard in front of his humble home. It had no running water and no electricity, and Peg Leg Sam, with his one leg, would amble to the woodpile, or out in the woods to chop wood for a fire to cook on. He would go down to the creek and carry water to drink, bathe and cook with. It was a hard life for an old man. But it was nothing new for Peg Leg Sam. It was the life he'd always had.

Freddie, a young white man, who grew up with considerable more privilege, was only a little surprised by the lifestyle. After all, there were plenty of homes in his white part of town that had no running water or electricity yet, either. Still, there was something there that was not the same. The sense of hope, perhaps. Or lack of it. Freddie looked around and saw the blues. He felt the blues. It was all around him. He told Peg that he was a harmonica player. And he'd like to learn from him. Peg said, "Well, first, I want you to go cut me some wood and carry some water up to the house." And Freddie did so. But Peg didn't play.

Every day, Freddie would get home from school, cross no-man's land, and cut wood and carry water. And every day, he would go home without having heard, let alone received a lesson, from Peg. This went on for weeks.

Freddie said, "He wasn't gonna start teachin' me 'til I proved to him I was serious."

And went on to tell me his story.

"He worked me, yeah, but I liked goin' over there, after I got over bein' scared I'd get killed out there. It was like, I don't know, like no place I'd ever been. I'm not talkin' cause it was in "No Man's Land". It was beyond that. I mean, no "excuse me" or "thank you". It was people sayin' what the hell they wanted and it came out lyrics. A poker game was a song, each player took turns with the verses. A moonshine run was a ballad. I chopped wood, and listened. Piedmont Blues. Best time of my life. Then, after, I don't know, twelve cords of wood, he started teachin' me."

Freddie mentored under Peg Leg Sam, learned some remarkable skills, and most of all, an appreciation for a style of music from his own Piedmont region. A style that was almost lost. Freddie immersed himself in the riches of his newfound heritage and culture. Instead of immitating his mentor, Freddie went on to take this "new language" Peg had taught him, and began to speak it his own way. When Freddie plays, you hear the past, and you hear something else, too. You hear the world we are living in today. Freddie's masterful style of Piedmont playing doesn't relegate him to some lost period of time in music. It propels him ever into the next moment. The blues are an expression. The style he is playing may have been developed in another time, but the feelings that went into making those blues are still around today. Freddie's job as an artist was to make Piedmont Blues relevant to himself, first. And when he did that, he made it relevant to audiences everywhere. We hear a blend of history and contemporary when Freddie lets loose playing and singing. For a musician to evoke the past and present and future all at once- That is just good art.

Freddie came to not only learn the Piedmont Blues style, but mastered it. He is now one of the greatest Harmonica players in the country, and like Peg Leg Sam, continues to call Buffalo, South Carolina, his home. He continues to play gigs around the country, and also teaches the Piedmont style of blues to younger musicians, in an effort to keep alive what was almost lost. Freddie has just released a new solo album, and on it are some favorite of mine he used to play for me, when I'd invite him over. While I cooked dinner, he would play, among other favorties, his very popular rendition of "Greasy Greens". My children delighted in the miniature harmonica necklaces he gave them.

Freddie and I enjoyed collaborating together, and did several projects together-- two plays and a radio show in Union, South Carolina, as well as making guest appearances on a staged radio show-style production at the Yoder Barn Theater in Newport News, Virginia. He also performed in some of my Theater Productions at Cotton Hall in Colquitt, GA.

His solo music career would begin to take him far. Folks from all over began to take note of this rising star on the blues scene.

For a time, Freddie divided his time both playing music gigs as well as starring in theatrical productions with music. In Colquitt, Georgia, he starred in "Gospel of the Rock" as a pretty scary character at the Cross Roads. My favorite image of him from that play was as he stood singing at the crossways of two bright lights, in front of a sign with two directions pointing "Thou Shalt" and "Thou Shalt Not".