美国国家公共电台 NPR How To Like Country Music: The Highwomen, Townes Van Zandt, L

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

This new year, we're helping¹ you find some new music.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CELESTE AIDA")

ANDREA BOCELLI: (Singing in non-English language).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SICKO MODE")

TRAVIS SCOTT: (Rapping) Made this here with all the ice on in the booth.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And we're getting help, bringing in a few folks to help you discover - we hope - a new genre². Today, we're talking about country music. And music writer Marissa Moss³ joins us now from Nashville to help us out.

Hey there.

MARISSA MOSS: Hello. Thanks for having me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Great to have you. I love country music, so let's just start with that.

MOSS: Oh, good.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But you know, country music encompasses⁴ a huge amount of music. Let's start with a song that shows us what it's all about. I'm thinking of "Got My Name Changed Back" by Pistol Annies. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GOT MY NAME CHANGED BACK")

PISTOL ANNIES: (Singing) It takes a judge to get married, takes a judge to get divorced. Well, the last couple years, spent a lot of time in court. Got my name changed back, yeah, yeah. I got my name changed back. Yeah, yeah.

MOSS: Yeah. It's twangy. It's fiery⁵. It has great themes, like divorce and revenge and kind of taking ownership. It has a story. It has steel guitar. It has, you know, kind of all the elements that make up country music. It has a lot of truth. You know, three chords and the truth is sort of the cliche⁶, but it can be true.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's why I love it. It always does tell a story. I've heard people, though, say, I listen to anything but country. How do you tell those people that they're making a mistake?

MOSS: I hear that a lot because there's such a narrow view of what country music can be. You know, it's - there's that famous David Allan Coe song where he sort of lists off everything that he thinks that, you know, country music is stereotypically⁷ about, which is - I think it's mama, trains, trucks, prison and getting drunk. And I mean, in some ways, that hasn't changed a lot. There are a lot of truck songs out there and a lot of...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: There are.

MOSS: ...Dog is dead, I'm in my truck. But it's so broad and so exciting, and that's why I love it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, I want to listen now to Townes Van Zandt - "Pancho And Lefty" - because you think it's a good song to introduce people who might not like country music to.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PANCHO AND LEFTY")

TOWNES VAN ZANDT: (Singing) Living on the road, my friend, was going to keep you free and clean. Now you wear your skin like iron, and your breath's as hard as kerosene⁸. You weren't your mama's only boy, but her favorite one, it seems. She began to cry when you said goodbye.

MOSS: With people who tell me that they don't like country music, I always ask them, well, do you like Bob Dylan? And a lot of times, the answer is yes because a lot of people like Bob Dylan. And I say, well, if you like Bob Dylan, then you probably like Townes Van Zandt. And usually, once they hear a song like that - it has a lot of the same sort of, you know, narrative⁹ qualities. It's very - it's acoustic-based. It's a folk song, too - you can kind of unveil this whole world that people didn't think existed.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: One of the things that I really love about country music is it has such a strong presence of women. Let's listen to Loretta Lynn's "The Pill."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE PILL")

LORETTA LYNN: (Singing) All these years I've stayed at home while you had all your fun. And every year that's gone by, another baby's come. There's going to be some changes made right here on nursery hill. You've set this chicken your last time 'cause now I've got the pill.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It is a feminist¹⁰ anthem¹¹.

MOSS: Yeah. I mean, one of the things that I always hear is, like, oh, I can't relate to country music; it's too conservative. And I mean, that would be hard to sing about on country radio now, let alone when Loretta Lynn released it in 1975. And yes, there are so many amazing women in country music. I mean, it's still driven by the voices of women. You don't hear them on country radio a lot. That's a whole other story. But they are there, and they are just telling unbelievable stories.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So what is the stuff that you're listening to right now? What's the stuff that excites you?

MOSS: There's a lot of great music out there. Maren Morris made a great album last year, "Girl." And she's someone that, you know, has a whole new take on country music. But on the flip¹² side, I love Tyler Childers, who has a lot more of those traditional elements - steel guitar, fiddle¹³, Kentucky Appalachian working-class tales that are sort of, you know, bringing to the surface unheard stories. Kelsey Waldon's another singer from Kentucky who is just a real gifted songwriter. I love a record that Robert Ellis put out this year. It's called "Texas Piano Man." And I love The Highwomen right now - speaking of powerful women in country music - just songs of women's stories.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Well, let's go out with "If She Ever Leaves Me."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF SHE EVER LEAVES ME")

THE HIGHWOMEN: (Singing) I see you watch her from across the room, dancing her home in your mind. It takes more than whiskey to make that flower bloom. By the third drink, you'll find out she's mine.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'm going to go get myself a drink and listen to that on repeat.

That's music writer Marissa Moss speaking with us from Nashville. Thank you so much.

MOSS: Thank you.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

3 moss   

n.苔，藓，地衣

参考例句：

• Moss grows on a rock.苔藓生在石头上。
• He was found asleep on a pillow of leaves and moss.有人看见他枕着树叶和苔藓睡着了。

4 encompasses   

v.围绕( encompass的第三人称单数 )；包围；包含；包括

参考例句：

• The job encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. 这项工作涉及的职责范围很广。
• Its conservation law encompasses both its magnitude and its direction. 它的守恒定律包括大小和方向两方面。 来自辞典例句

5 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

6 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

7 stereotypically   

adv.带有成见地(stereotype的副词形式)

参考例句：

8 kerosene   

n.(kerosine)煤油，火油

参考例句：

• It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
• Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电，有煤油灯。

9 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

10 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

11 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

12 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

13 fiddle   

n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动

参考例句：

• She plays the fiddle well.她小提琴拉得好。
• Don't fiddle with the typewriter.不要摆弄那架打字机了。