PBS高端访谈:歌曲如何缩小城乡差异（在线收听）

JUDY WOODRUFF: And finally tonight: As we approach the election, there's a refrain of how divided the country is, culturally and politically. And some of the starkest differences are between urban and rural areas. Now a singer-songwriter from Western Kentucky is hoping her music can help us find some common ground. Jeffrey Brown reports. It's part of our American Creators series and our ongoing arts and culture series, Canvas.

朱迪·伍德乐夫：最后，今晚，随着大选的临近，我们又看到了美国反复出现的在文化和政治上的分裂，这种分裂在城市和农村之间表现地最为明显。鉴于此，有一位来自西肯塔基州的创作型歌手正试图通过自己的音乐来帮助我们找到一些共同点。该故事类属于我们的“美国创造者系列”和正在进行的“艺术和文化系列：坎瓦斯”的一部分。

JEFFREY BROWN: S.G. Goodman's debut solo album draws from her experience growing up as a farmer's daughter in Western Kentucky in Hickman, a town of 3,000 people on the Mississippi River. Her songs are often a poignant critique, both of how outsiders view rural communities and of the social, political and economic systems that have shaped the lives of her family and neighbors.

杰弗里·布朗：古德曼的首张个人专辑取材于她作为一个农民的女儿在西肯塔基州希克曼的成长经历。希克曼位于密西西比河沿岸，那里的居民有3000人。她的歌曲通常包含尖锐的批评，既反映了外界对农村社区的看法，也反映了塑造了她的家庭和邻居生活的社会、政治和经济制度。

S.G. GOODMAN, Musician: I take it very seriously to represent my home and the people there in a respectful manner. Oftentimes, I feel like people who write about the South want to just keep pushing stereotypes that does nothing really to capture the true essence of the South.

S.G. 古德曼，音乐家：我非常认真地以尊重的方式代表我的家和那里的人们。很多时候，我觉得那些描写美国南方的作者只是进一步强化了那些没有真正抓住南方本质的刻板印象。

JEFFREY BROWN: That focus on authenticity is also reflected in the album's raw sound.

杰弗里·布朗：其真实性也反映在“专辑用了原声”这一点上。

S.G. GOODMAN: My philosophy when it comes to recording is, you're truly capturing a moment in time, and we are raw, and we are gritty. And I wanted to make sure that people, when they heard my music, they heard us. This is the storefront of our local record shop, Terrapin Station. Here it is in all its glory.

S.G. 古德曼：关于录音我的哲学是，你是在真实地捕捉瞬间，我们自身就是真实的。我希望当人们听到我的音乐时，他们也听到了我们。这是我们当地的唱片店Terrapin Station的门面，这里囊括了它所有的荣耀。

JEFFREY BROWN: The 31-year-old Goodman now lives an hour east of her hometown in the small college town of Murray, population 19,000. We got a virtual tour, including the local music scene mecca.

杰弗里·布朗：31岁的古德曼现在住在距离她家乡东部一小时车程的默里大学城，那里有1.9万人口。我们进行了一次虚拟之旅，还去了当地的音乐圣地。

S.G. GOODMAN: When I was a freshman in college, I'd made a C.D., and I dropped off my C.D. to the manager here. And I told him. I said, just stick a C.D. in everybody's bag as they leave.

S.G. 古德曼：我在上大一的时候做了一张CD，我把那张CD给了这里的经理，我告诉他说，在每个人离开的时候都在他们包里放一张CD。

JEFFREY BROWN: That was one way of getting yourself heard, I guess.

杰弗里·布朗：我想这是让自己的声音被听到的一种方式。

S.G. GOODMAN: I do have a lot of DIY roots. So that was my genius marketing plan at the time.

S.G. 古德曼：我很有DIY天赋，这就是我当时的天才营销计划。

JEFFREY BROWN: These days, she makes a living through music. And she made a decision to stay in Western Kentucky, even when it hasn't been easy. She's gay and politically liberal in a county that is overwhelmingly conservative.

杰弗里·布朗：现在她靠音乐谋生。她决定留在肯塔基州西部，虽然并不容易。她是一名生活在一个极端保守的县的同性恋和政治自由主义者。

S.G. GOODMAN: There's multiple reasons why it would benefit me to move to a more urban area, a more progressive area. But I feel like the only way for the South and rural areas to change and to progress is for people to stay and live out those beliefs.

S.G. 古德曼：搬到一个对我有利的更城市化、更进步的地区有很多原因，但我觉得南方和农村地区要想改变和进步，唯一的办法就是让人们留下来，活出这些信念。

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a sentiment heard in her album's title track, Old Time Feeling. Goodman says her Southern roots make people more receptive to her views and her criticisms than they would be to an outsider's.

杰弗里·布朗：这是在她专辑的同名歌曲《旧时光的感觉》中听到的情感。古德曼说，她的南方血统使得人们比局外人更容易接受她的观点和批评。

S.G. GOODMAN: Actual farmer's daughters, they're a rare breed these days. I can sit down at a diner in the middle of Mississippi and probably fit right in, and people wouldn't immediately peg me as a progressive.

S.G. 古德曼：我真的是农民的女儿，现在已经很少见了。我可以在密西西比中部的一家餐馆坐下，也许我很适合这里，但人们不会立刻把我当成一个进步主义者。

JEFFREY BROWN: Old-time feeling, that's a phrase that I might expect as a sort of nostalgic feel-good old-time feeling. But you are writing, we're not living in that old-time feeling.

杰弗里·布朗：怀旧的感觉，我觉得这是一种怀旧，一种美好的怀旧，你在写的是，我们不再生活的那种旧时的感觉。

S.G. GOODMAN: The South is a complex place. Southern pride is a complex issue. I'm definitely proud of where I'm from and the people who surround me. But, at the same time, there's definitely some generational cycles that need to be broken, interrogated, and also not held at such high regards.

S.G. 古德曼：南方是一个复杂的地方，南方的傲慢是一个复杂的问题，我为自己的家乡和身边的人感到自豪。但是与此同时，确实有一些没有受到很高重视的世代循环需要被打破、被质疑。

JEFFREY BROWN: It's a debate playing out in Goodman's own town. A Robert E. Lee statue that stands in the town square outside the county courthouse has sparked protests and counterprotests.

杰弗里·布朗：这是一场在古德曼所在的城镇进行的辩论。罗伯特·E·李的雕像矗立在县法院外的城镇广场上，引发了抗议和反抗议活动。

S.G. GOODMAN: Many community members and myself find it offensive, and we feel like we could come to some sort of compromise by at least having it removed from such a public place.

S.G. 古德曼：许多社区成员和我自己都觉得它令人反感，我们觉得我们可以达成某种妥协，至少把它从这样的公共场所移走。

JEFFREY BROWN: Bringing out an album is, of course, difficult amid the pandemic. A tour to promote it had to be canceled. Still, it's given Goodman another reason to appreciate her home.

杰弗里·布朗：当然，在新冠期间发行一张专辑是很困难的，宣传的巡演不得不取消。不过，这给了古德曼另一个欣赏自己家乡的理由。

S.G. GOODMAN: For once, I got it right, living in a small town with nature around me.

S.G. 古德曼：这一次，我做对了，我住在一个被大自然环绕的小镇上。

JEFFREY BROWN: Now you have a lot of people wanting to leave the cities to come to a place like where you are.

杰弗里·布朗：现在有很多人想离开城市，来到像你家乡这样的地方。

S.G. GOODMAN: Houses are cheap here. Come on down, you know?

S.G. 古德曼：你知道吗，这里的房子很便宜，快过来吧。

JEFFREY BROWN: And if not in-person, then visit through song. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Jeffrey Brown.

杰弗里·布朗：如果不能亲自拜访，那就通过歌曲感受。这里是PBS新闻一小时，我是杰弗里·布朗。

JUDY WOODRUFF: And What a beautiful voice.

朱迪·伍德乐夫：多美的声音啊！