Freddie Vanderford

Freddie Vanderford
Harmonica, Acoustic Guitar, Washboard, Vocals
Blues/Americana/Folk

Award: 2010 South Carolina Folk Heritage Award

Compositions: "Big Wheel," "Don't Let Your Mouth Write a Check Your Butt Can't Cash," "Everything Chicken But the Bill," "Trouble Come Knockin'"

Recordings as leader: Blues Legacy (1997; with Little Pink Anderson), Down Home Southern Fried Blues (1997; by The Shades), New Legacy Duo (1999; with Brandon Turner), "Crazy With a Frying Pan" (2005; with Brandon Turner), "Greasy Greens" (2005; with Brandon Turner), Greasy Greens (2010), Mill Billy Blues (2012; with Matthew Knights, Shane Pruitt, and Brandon Turner), "Deep Ellum Blues" (2013; with Mill Billy Blues), "Drop Down Mama" (2013; with Mill Billy Blues)

Leader recorded with: Nappy Brown (1990-1991)

Film: The Lot (2011)

By age 12, Vanderford played the guitar and sang well enough that he performed on television programs in Asheville, N.C., and Spartanburg, S.C. At age 16, he befriended the legendary Peg Leg Sam (Arthur Jackson), who taught Vanderford to play the Piedmont blues on harmonica.
Vanderford joined the Mountain Ashe Band in 1974 and in the late 1970s formed the country-rock group Bighorn, which evolved into the Shades; this group backed Nappy Brown in the early 1990s. Vanderford and Little Pink Anderson teamed as the Legacy Duo in 1997; in time Vanderford and Brandon Turner established the New Legacy Duo.
Though Vanderford resided in places other than Buffalo, identifying them and determining the dates he lived in them has proven difficult, he always returned to Buffalo, SC.