2007年VOA标准英语-Bluegrass Echoes Through Black Hills

By Jim Kent
Rapid City, South Dakota
17 July 2007
 

Country music enthusiasts¹ from across the Northern Plains gathered in Rapid City, South Dakota in June for the 27th annual Black Hills Bluegrass Festival. A key feature of the three-day music event were the workshops offered for traditional bluegrass instruments. Jim Kent visited the festival and learned that fans of bluegrass music span all ages.

Larry Lashley

The Black Hills Bluegrass Festival has been an institution in western South Dakota since 1980. Fiddle² instructor³ Larry Lashley says bluegrass has its roots in Irish, English and Scottish traditional music and is truly a family tradition.

"It was brought over from the old country, but then it was developed in the Blue Ridges⁴ and that, and developed father to son, and each time it's passed down to a new generation, it gets a new personality,” says Lashley. “So, it is truly American music"

Kassie McPherson

Truly American and definitely for all ages. Ten-year-old Kassie McPherson has played the violin for a year, but she says she is expanding her musical horizons to include the fiddle.

"I've done the violin classic music. And it's pretty good, but my teacher's really strict,” says McPherson. “One of my friends were doing the fiddle and I thought it would be really cool to do the fiddle, too."

Wait a minute. Fiddle? Violin? What's the difference?

"Well, the violin usually plays more classic music, than upbeat, and I wanted to go with something more upbeat," McPherson replies.

Larry Lashley says it is actually a matter of technique.  "The real difference is the traditional fiddle player, because they play several notes, will flatten⁵ the bridge, they'll basically customize the violin. They'll pull the sound post back a little bit to get more of the 'whangy' sound, and they'll use a harder, more steel-type string."

But whether it is the fiddle or that other iconic symbol of the genre⁶, the banjo, musician Mark Leslie says bluegrass epitomizes the American spirit.  "You know, you see it on a lot of truck commercials and that kind of thing, but I think it has a lot more application than that,” says Leslie. “And it has a lot more deep roots and feeling than just being used in some car commercial somewhere."

Chris Penning

Chris Penning has just finished sitting in with Mark Leslie at the banjo workshop. Chris says he has wanted to be a part of the deep roots of bluegrass since he was a kid.

"I kind of grew up listening to that and I had to finally just get the banjo out and try to learn how to play it,” says Penning. “That's what bluegrass is about, playing the music with friends out on the porch. That's kind of the way it grew up, out of the churches and all that. But there's a million players...a million different styles. And that's what makes it fun."

Over at the fiddle workshop, one of those million players is cutting her teeth on the very first fiddle she has ever held.

And after just one hour of practice, and a little coaxing⁷, five-year-old Grace Sherill shows what she can do.

Bluegrass is the type of music that brings people together. Professional musicians, amateur players and even little Grace Sherrill are doing their best to keep that tradition alive and well in South Dakota.

1 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册

2 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。

3 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

4 ridges   

n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊

参考例句：

• The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
• Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上，这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。

5 flatten   

v.把．．．弄平，使倒伏；使(漆等)失去光泽

参考例句：

• We can flatten out a piece of metal by hammering it.我们可以用锤子把一块金属敲平。
• The wrinkled silk will flatten out if you iron it.发皱的丝绸可以用熨斗烫平。

6 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。

7 coaxing   

v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的现在分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱；“锻炼”效应

参考例句：

• No amount of coaxing will make me change my mind. 任你费尽口舌也不会说服我改变主意。
• It took a lot of coaxing before he agreed. 劝说了很久他才同意。 来自辞典例句