Big Creek Slim, a.k.a. Marc Rune, è nato e cresciuto a Ikast, una piccola città nella Danimarca centrale. Ha viaggiato negli Stati Uniti per un lungo periodo, suonando blues e scrivendo canzoni. Ora vive con la sua famiglia in Brasile, in una capanna sull’oceano, e il blues, soprattutto quello degli anni prima della seconda guerra mondiale è diventato la sua vita.
Ma perché un musicista danese dovrebbe trovare una connessione personale in una musica creata da neri americani nelle zone rurali meridionali degli Stati Uniti, a migliaia di miglia da casa sua? Cosa lo collega alle radici di quella musica?
“Non è tanto per la musica americana o nera quanto per il blues”, afferma Big Creek. “Il blues dovrebbe essere un sentimento universale e un patrimonio mondiale. Perché li suono in questo stile – vecchio, nero, americano – ha qualcosa a che fare con il mio modo di essere. Mi è sempre piaciuto trovare le radici delle cose. Cerco anche le radici della cultura scandinava. Ho suonato molta musica tradizionale irlandese e le origini della samba brasiliana mi affascinano. ”Nelle radici del blues, Big Creek ha trovato un mix di potenza e semplicità e in definitiva, un’essenza spirituale. “La cosa che mi ha ispirato così tanto del vecchio blues e della musica folk è il suono forte. Il suono del Delta blues mi porta a uno stato mentale più primitivo. “Nel vecchio blues americano, senti una purezza che non trovi nella musica al giorno d’oggi, non nel blues contemporaneo e nemmeno nella musica popolare”, spiega Big Creek. “I primi dischi blues sono i primi suoni registrati di un popolo oppresso. È un momento molto importante nella storia dell’umanità. Mi ha sicuramente aperto gli occhi e mi ha reso una persona più tollerante verso le indifferenze degli esseri umani, e mi ha insegnato ad amare me stesso. Immagino sia per questo che li ho interpretati così male.
Danish Music Award – Best Blues Album 2016
Danish Blues Name Of The Year 2015
Danish Music Award Nominee – Best Blues Album 2015
Danish Blues Challenge Winner 2013
Big Creek Slim: An Introduction Big Creek Slim, a.k.a. Marc Rune, was born and raised in Ikast, a small town in Central Denmark. He traveled in the United States for a spell around 2008, playing music and writing songs. He now lives with his family in Florianopolis Brazil, in a cabin by the ocean. And Big Creek Slim is a bluesman, as sure as the day is long. Don’t believe it? Listen to Keep My Belly Full. Hear that voice. Feel the passion and intensity that he brings to Tommy Johnson’s thumping “Bye Bye Blues.” Dig that slippery groove on “Do Somebody Wrong”and the sheer power of the Elmore James-styled “Tell Me Baby,” both originals. Bear witness to the gospel vibe threading through the disc, culminating with the traditional “Sink ‘Em Low.” Hear the effortless, natural command of his guitar work throughout the album. This man has lived with the blues. So, why would a Danish musician find such a definitive personal connection in a music created by black Americans in the rural Southern reaches of the United States, thousands of miles from his home? And, specifically, what connects him to the earliest days of that music, primarily the years before World War II? Part of it has to do with the nature of the man, and part of it has to do with nature of the music. “It ain’t that much about American or black music as it’s about the blues,” Big Creek says. “The blues should be a universal feeling, and a world patrimony. Why I play them in this style – old, black, American – has something to do with the way I am. I always liked to find the roots of things. I also search for the roots of Scandinavian culture. I played a lot of Irish traditional music, and the roots of Brazilian samba fascinate me.” At the roots of the blues, Big Creek found a blend of power and simplicity and, ultimately, a spiritual essence. “The thing that inspired me so about old blues and folk music is the strong sound. Less is more if you play it with attitude. The sound of the Delta blues carries me to a more primitive state of mind, and I get to cut the cheese out of my life, if you know what I mean,” he says. As blues music is part of Big Creek Slim, so is his recognition of the conditions that created that music. This awareness fundamentally changed his outlook on life. “In the old American blues, you hear a purity that you don´t find in music nowadays, not in contemporary blues and not in popular music at all,” Big Creek explains. “The first blues records are the first recorded sounds of an oppressed people. It´s a very important moment in the history of humankind. It surely opened my eyes and made me a more tolerant person toward the indifferences of human beings, and it taught me how to love myself. I guess that´s why I got to play them so bad.” www.bigcreekslimblues.com Albums: Keep My Belly Full – SHOT 015 Straight Shooter 2016 Hope For My Soul – SHOT 014 Straight Shooter 2015 99½ – BCS 2012 Tumbleweed – BCS 2009 Awards: Danish Music Award – Best Blues Album 2016 – Keep My Belly Full Danish Blues Name Of The Year 2015 – Big Creek Slim Danish Music Award Nominee – Best Blues Album 2015 – Hope For My Soul Danish Blues Challenge Winner 2013 –