Daniel Eriksen

Daniel Eriksen plays the slide guitar as though the Mississippi Delta had been relocated north of the Arctic Circle, and the name he gives it — the Arctic Slide — has stuck.

Born on 17 July 1977, he grew up in Langesund before spending his youth in Tromsø, returning south in 1996 for a blues scene he could work in. His models are the country-blues slide masters: Mississippi Fred McDowell, Bukka White and Blind Willie Johnson. What he does with them is his own, folding New Orleans rhythm, gospel and boogie into the trance-like repetition of the Delta.

Learning from the source

He has studied with and played alongside Roy Rogers, John Mooney, Bob Brozman and Sonny Landreth, and has shared stages with B.B. King, The Yardbirds and John Mayall. He works often with the drummer Stig Sjøstrøm, and the two of them took second place in the solo/duo category at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis in 2018. He is also part of Back Porch Society with Vidar Busk and the trio Back Porch Republic with Busk and Sjøstrøm.

Records and awards

His discography begins with Ya Ya in 2006 and runs through the EP Grey Goose: A Tribute To Leadbelly, recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis, and Hustle & Flow in 2019. He won the Spellemannprisen in the blues category twice, for Moonshine Hymns in 2014 and Barefoot Among Scarecrows in 2020, and was nominated again in 2024 for There'll Be A Time When The Sun Will Refuse To Shine. In 2015 Steven Van Zandt presented him with the Notodden Blues Festival's blues prize. He took the Bamble Kommune Culture Prize in 2022 and the Wrightegaarden Award in 2017.

Spellemannprisen Blues 2014 (Moonshine Hymns); Spellemannprisen Blues 2020 (Barefoot Among Scarecrows); NBF Blues Prize, Notodden 2015; 2nd place International Blues Challenge 2018 (solo/duo); Bamble Kommune Culture Prize 2022; Wrightegaarden Award 2017