By Johnny Petersen 2020
Certain artists take their style of music more serious than others. When it comes to preserving and advocating the style of acoustic guitar music we call Country blues, Dragan Rusic, better known as “Homesick Mac”, stands in the front line.
Dragan, born in 1960 in the city of Subotica in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, began playing the guitar at an early age. While still in his teens he played both bass and guitar in several bands, and in 1983 he formed the Blues Trio with harmonica player extra ordinaire Pera Joe (Patar Miladinovic) and mandolinist Kuki (Zoran Katrinka). They were soon to become “The Smallest Trio In The World” as the mandolinist left five years later. The Blues Trio is known to be the first acoustic blues/folk band in Eastern Europe and they released a couple of cassette-recordings, one LP and three CDs between 1987 and 2006.
For some years Dragan stayed and played alternatively in Serbia, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. With the outbreak of the Civil War in Yugoslavia he chose to not return, and he stayed in Germany to avoid being drafted. In 1992 he moved permanently to Sweden as he met his wife-to-be at a gig in Helsingborg, where he has lived ever since. “True love at first sight” he claims at an interview with theCountryblues.com. Soon after he also recorded his first solo album.
In 1995, he met British slide virtuoso Sam Mitchell at the Mojo Blues Club in Copenhagen. They hit it off immediately, and were soon sitting in at one another’s gigs, each finding a special chemistry that they rarely experienced with others. Within a year they recorded a CD and played frequently together until 1999, and kept in touch until Sam’s untimely death in 2006. Dragan loves to tell numerous stories about their time together.
During his career Dragan has also played with other well-known blues artists, including Louisiana Red, John Hammond, Keith Dunn, Johnnie Mars, Micky Waller as well as the Blues Elite from both Denmark and Sweden. A couple of times he’s been touring Russia with Pera Joe, as well as Eastern Europe.
Dragan has become well-known as a slide player and for seven years he was invited to conduct classes at The Blues Week in England, arranged by The European Blues Association together with Michael Messer, among others. During the last eight years he has arranged his own Guitar Retreats at the beautiful small island of Ven, situated in the straight between Sweden and Denmark. These retreats, in a whisky distillery, are conducted over 2 or 3 days in late July and haves become a yearly meeting place for amateur acoustic guitar players from Southern Sweden. On a daily basis Dragan is mentoring young musicians in the area around Helsingborg and Malmö, and he has become a well-known and popular face in the music scene of this area.
For quite some time now Dragan Ružić has collaborated with master luthier Michael Sandén, being an advocate of his exclusive handmade guitars at various large Guitar Shows around Europe. During the last four years or so he has frequently shared the stage with local vocalist and composer Maria Stille in what they call The Delmore Sessions, focusing on Old Timey Music.
When finally asked what international musician he would like to invite to Sweden and play with, his answer is, “That’s a tough one. If I could bring them from the dead, I’d invite Fred McDowell and Blind Willie McTell. The living ones, well, I enjoy jamming with lots of folks but if I’d really nailed it down to musician colleagues whom I played with way too seldom, I’d love to invite John Miller and Mike Dowling. They are both so versatile within several styles and techniques, I love their playing and arrangements, been a true fan for ages now.”
Why listen to Dragan? Easy answer. His music is not only competent but lively and energetic, which reflects his personality. Makes you move those old feet with a smile in your face…
