VOA慢速英语2015 一些不太知名的蓝调音乐家发行唱片

Longtime, But Unknown, Blues¹ Musicians Release CD 一些不太知名的蓝调音乐家发行唱片

BB King. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Elmore James. These are some famous names in American blues music. You might have heard them before.

But none of those beloved artists made their music on their own. There were supported by many other talented performers.  Recently, some of these lesser² known musicians decided³ to record and release their own music.

These artists have played for years in bands. Millions of people have heard their work. VOA has been following the musicians for the past year as they prepared their own CD.

They call themselves, “Original Legends of the Blues.” They chose the name not in praise of themselves but to honor the legendary⁴ musicians with whom they played.

Eric Demmer performed around the world for more than 12 years with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.

“I was with him up until about four days before he died and it was real hard to see that happen. I felt like it would have been nice to have him around a few more years.”

James “Boogaloo” Bolden has been playing trumpet⁵ with BB King’s band for more than 35 years. He says people around the world have heard the blues, music created by slaves and former slaves in the southern United States.

“Now, other people, they listen to it and they say, ‘ Well, okay, I wasn’t a slave, but, man, I had a hard time paying this bill last month and I am about to lose this job.’”

Charlie Dennis has played guitar with the BB King band since 2002.

“We started realizing that BB’s getting older, so we started to working on, trying to work on on other projects, to keep stuff going on.”

Jimmi Mayes sings and plays the drums. He has played with Elmore James and Jimi Hendrix. He joined the Original Legends of the Blues for the recording⁶ of the CD.

“We are not backingup anybody. We are playing for us.”

He has many stories to tell, but he enjoys the stories of others as well.

“I've been listening to Boogaloo and Charlie talking about some of the things with BB, and Eric be talking about Gatemouth Brown. There’s a lot of history in this group.”

The CD is called “Still Carrying the Flame.” It was released recently. Radio stations around the world are playing songs from the album. The band hopes to perform the songs at live music shows soon.

Words in This Story

talented – adj. having a special ability to do something well

original – adj. happening or existing first or at the beginning

legend – n. a famous or important person who is known for doing something extremely well

back up – phrasal verb, to support

flame – n. the hot, glowing gas that can be seen when a fire is burning

1 blues   

n.抑郁，沮丧；布鲁斯音乐

参考例句：

• She was in the back of a smoky bar singing the blues.她在烟雾弥漫的酒吧深处唱着布鲁斯歌曲。
• He was in the blues on account of his failure in business.他因事业失败而意志消沉。

2 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

5 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。

6 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。