PBS高端访谈:了解一下马戈·普莱斯的音乐

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, another in our occasional series called My Music, where singers and musicians talk about their work, their influences and the art of their craft. If you haven't already heard of her, let's introduce Margo Price. She's up for a Grammy for best new artist next month. The 35-year-old country musician is making waves with songs about the beauty and struggles of rural America and about her own issues with alcohol, loss, and trying to make it in Nashville. She's also been outspoken¹ on issues of gender² equality and gun control. Price sat down with the NewsHour recently show at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club. Here's a listen.

MARGO PRICE, Musician: When I first moved to Nashville, I didn't have a lot of life experiences. And the kind of country music that I like has always been about the struggle and the darker sides of things, divorce and drinking and the sad side of life. So, eventually, that's what my life became, for better or worse. My name is Margo Price, and I'm a singer-songwriter living in Nashville, Tennessee. My first album, Midwest Farmer's Daughter, was kind of the honest glimpse of everything that had happened since I had moved to Nashville, just struggling in the music business, and drinking too much, and running around with the wrong type of people. I just was pretty unafraid to talk about my struggles at that point, and wasn't afraid to be self-deprecating and honest about my hardships. And I think people love an underdog. We wrote the second album kind of when we were on the road touring Midwest Farmer's Daughter. And we were seeing a lot of America. And I definitely had done a good amount of introspective writing about myself. And so we thought it was a good idea to kind of look at what was going on in our country. We just wanted to show working-class America. We just wanted to show the everyday people who are really making this country run. And, many times, they're struggling. Oddly enough, we wrote that song during the Obama administration, and we recorded it prior to the election. And but they were campaigning at that time. And I was already starting to see a lot of division. I think, definitely, the song had new meaning post-election. And I have changed some of the lyrics³ when we do it live. I hope that we can preserve what we have here and keep our country beautiful.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Lovely.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：欢迎收听我台系列节目《我的音乐》。本档节目将会邀请歌手和音乐家来聊聊他们的工作、影响力和工艺美术。有些观众可能没有听过马戈·普莱斯。下个月，她就要奔赴格莱美接收最佳新人艺术家奖了。35岁的她凭借与美国乡村的美丽与挣扎有关的歌曲引起了轩然大波，还有一些歌曲是与她本人酗酒、穷困和在那什维尔成功的经历有关的。她的歌曲还直言不讳地谈及了性别平等和枪支管控的主题。近日，普莱斯参加了《新闻一小时》在华盛顿特区9:30俱乐部的一个秀。让我们来了解一下。

马戈·普莱斯，音乐家：我刚来那什维尔的时候，没有什么生活经验。我一直都很喜欢与挣扎和黑暗面有关的乡村音乐，还涉及离婚、酗酒等一些悲伤的事情。所以最后，我的生活就成了这样。我是马戈·普莱斯，我在田纳西州的那什维尔做歌手和作曲家。我的第一张专辑是《中西部的农家女》，这张专辑忠实地记录了我搬到那什维尔后所见到的生活。我在音乐事业中摸爬滚打，曾酗酒无数，跟不好的人鬼混在一起。那时候，我很害怕跟别人讲我挣扎的经历，我不敢跟别人提我经历过的痛苦，不敢自贬。我觉得大家都喜欢失败者。我的第二张专辑《中西部的农家女》是在路上写的。我们走遍了美国的大江南北。当然，我也写过很多自我反省的歌儿。所以我们觉得审视我们的国家正在发生什么是一件好事。我们只是想展现出美国工薪阶级的生活状态，也想展现出这个国家的螺丝钉是怎样的状态。他们通常都在挣扎。奇怪的是，我们是在奥巴马政府上台前写的那首歌，然后在选举前进行了录制。但那时候他们正在进行竞选活动。我已经看到很多人有分化的意见。我觉得这首歌也包含选举后的元素。所以，在现场演唱的时候，我改了一些歌词。我希望我们可以保留我们国家美好的东西。

朱迪·伍德拉夫：您很棒。

1 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。