VOA标准英语2010-At 95, Folk Singer is Still Jamming

For the last five decades, Faith Petric has taken center stage as the heart and soul of the San Francisco Bay Area's folk music community

JoAnn Mar¹ | San Francisco, California 12 April 2010
 

At 95, folk singer Faith Petric still holds regular jam sessions at her San Francisco home.

Related Links
San Francisco Folk Music Club
Folk Alliance Region West

It's Friday night in San Francisco and several dozen musicians are arriving at Faith Petric's home with their guitars, banjos and mandolins. They enter a large living room, where the woman they call 'the queen of folk music' is holding court.

Petric has been a mainstay of the San Francisco Folk Club since the 1970's. As a long-time labor² and political activist³, Petric says she was drawn⁴ to folk music because it was radical⁵, out of the mainstream⁶ and spoke⁷ to the human condition.

"People sing to their babies before they're born and we keen for the dead," Petric says. "It goes through all of life. There's no aspect of human life, I believe, that is not recorded in folk music."

Faith Petric (left) is joined by long-time club member Estelle Freedman on the mandolin at a recent jam session.

Regular jam sessions

Twice a month, Petric hosts the folk club's jam sessions at her house, where everyone who shows up is welcome.

"Probably everyone who's picked up a guitar or sung songs has at some point been introduced to Faith and to the folk music club and the music community," says Don, a member of the club since the mid⁸ 60's.

He says Petric's living room has been the heart of that community. "Faith's been around a long time and been a real leader. She's created a whole family. People like myself, many hundreds and hundreds of people like myself. I started playing music in this living room many years ago."

He credits Petric's spirit and energy with keeping the music club vital.

When Petric was hospitalized after a fall, club members moved the regular jam session to her hospital room.

A musical focus after retirement⁹

After retiring from her government job at age 55, Petric became a full-time¹⁰ folk performer and the task of keeping the San Francisco Folk Music Club together fell to her.

"I was doing pretty much everything that had to be done," she recalls, adding that one of her most important contributions was the monthly Folk-Nik newsletter, which went out to all club members.

"I would write it and put it on a stencil¹¹ and run it on a mimeograph machine and address it and mail it. All the little odds¹² and ends that needed to be done. But there was a time when I probably was - I called it the glue that held it together - I think that's a fairly accurate description."

San Francisco musician Adam Miller¹³ admits that the Folk-Nik was the reason he joined the club. "It's got all the listings for all the performances of any kind of folk music or dance." He was a member for 10 years before starting to attend the jam sessions at Petric's house.

Miller says he's amazed at her encyclopedic knowledge of folk music.

"They call her the Fort Knox of folk music. She knows more songs than anyone I've ever encountered." He says that if you sing a song and don't get the words right, "she'll correct you. 'You got the words a little bit out of kilter.' She'll nail you on that."

Still, he says Petric is a pleasure to sing and play with. "It's quite a treat to make music with someone who's been making music so long, who knows so many songs. It's a pleasure to sit up till 3 in the morning on a Friday night with her, doing old Carter family songs and harmonizing."

Nurturing¹⁴ and preserving folk music traditions

The great jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong is quoted as saying "all music is folk music." And, indeed, folk encompasses¹⁵ elements of almost every musical genre--blues, country, old time, Cajun, even classical and jazz.

Over the years, Faith Petric has done much to nurture¹⁶ these folk traditions and encourage everyone to sing along and participate.

Newcomers like Eileen and Mitchell are always welcome to join in the music-making in Petric's living room
She's proud that hundreds of amateurs have attended the club's annual free folk festival, or come to make music in her living room.

"The people who come here are not professional singers. This is not a performance arena¹⁷ at all," she says. "You'll hear some of the worst music you've ever heard in your life and you'll hear some very good, also because it's accepted. You can just be horrible and you don't know a chord and your guitar is out of tune¹⁸ and you couldn't carry a tune if you had a bucket. But it's accepted, it's all right."

In recognition of her contributions to folk music, Petric received a lifetime achievement award last year from the Folk Alliance Region West, a nonprofit dedicated¹⁹ to supporting and promoting folk music.

Faith Petric is turning 95 this year. Although age and disability have slowed her down, she insists she will continue to make music as long as she can.

 

1 mar   

vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟

参考例句：

• It was not the custom for elderly people to mar the picnics with their presence.大人们照例不参加这样的野餐以免扫兴。
• Such a marriage might mar your career.这样的婚姻说不定会毁了你的一生。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

6 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

9 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。

10 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

11 stencil   

v.用模版印刷；n.模版；复写纸，蜡纸

参考例句：

• He then stencilled the ceiling with a moon and stars motif.他随后用模版在天花板上印上了月亮和繁星图案。
• Serveral of commonly used methods are photoprinting,photoengraving,mechnical engraving,and stencil.通常所采用的几种储存方法是：影印法、照相蚀刻、机械雕刻和模板。

12 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

13 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

14 nurturing   

养育( nurture的现在分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• These delicate plants need careful nurturing. 这些幼嫩的植物需要精心培育。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants. 这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

15 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

16 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

17 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

18 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

19 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。