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.”

The Big Creek Slim Band
Big Creek Slim – vokal/guitar
Peter Nande – harmonica
Troels Jensen – piano/guitar
Paul Jr. – bass
Jens Kristian Dam – drums