2006年VOA标准英语-American Roots Music Enjoys Another Good Year

By Katherine Cole
Washington
18 December 2006

American Roots music can be found any day of the week in the clubs of urban centers; at the many concerts performed on university campuses; and at hundreds of bluegrass festivals in towns large and small. Despite a devoted¹ legion of fans, and albums that receive much critical acclaim², roots music rarely emerges at the top of the sales charts. As VOA's Katherine Cole reports, that doesn't mean 2006 was a bad year for fans of American Roots music.

 
The Duhks
Sometimes called "Americana," American roots music can include blues³, country, gospel, folk, bluegrass, zydeco and other homegrown music. The past year was filled with solid releases in all those styles. A few, like The Duhk's Grammy-nominated Migrations⁴, seemed to blend them all on one disc.

Some think roots music is just made by "old people" who can't get a hit on the Top 40 charts, but there are many young performers playing this music.

 
In addition to The Duhks, best-selling roots performers in their 20s include Chris Thile who released How To Grow A Woman From The Ground to much international acclaim, the all-woman string band Uncle Earl, Old Crow Medicine Show, and award-winning Australian performer Kasey Chambers⁵, who proved that you don't have to be from America to perform Americana music. James Hunter also falls in that category.

Despite 20 years performing in the U.K., Hunter was a virtual unknown here in the States before the March release of People Gonna Talk. The All Music Guide calls Hunter, a former London railroad worker, "one of the best blue-eyed soul singers to emerge in the late-20th century." While the 14 songs on People Gonna Talk sound like they could have been culled⁶ from a Jackie Wilson or Sam Cooke (1960s R&B singers) album, they are all James Hunter originals, written in just the past few years.

James Hunter's People Gonna Talk, has been nominated for the Best Traditional Blues Album Grammy, and is sitting atop many critics' Best of 2006 lists.

Equally praised is Rosanne Cash's Black Cadillac.  This dark, intense album is very personal, with songs written during a two-year period that saw the singer-songwriter lose her mother, father and stepmother. While the songs on Black Cadillac are sad, they are never maudlin⁷ or overly sentimental⁸. Instead, they are comforting.

 
In all, 2006 was a very good year for fans of Americana music. Other releases worth seeking out include Tom Russell's Love and Fear, Jon Dee Grahams Full, and Laps in Seven by Sam Bush, along with other titles from Tres Chicas, Slaid Cleaves⁹, and Ray Wylie Hubbard.

Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, also deserves recognition. Not only is it the first album of "covers" ever recorded by Springsteen, it is a very loose and live-feeling album that was completed in just two one-day recording¹⁰ sessions. Known as a perfectionist, Bruce Springsteen usually labors¹¹ over recording, spending months tweaking and reworking tracks before releasing them. In his more than 30 years of recording, Springsteen has never made an album that feels as alive as does this Best Traditional Folk Grammy nominee¹².

The Seeger Sessions, featuring songs written or made popular by folksinger Pete Seeger, has turned out to be a worldwide hit, charting in the Top Five in 12 European countries, and selling well elsewhere around the globe.

1 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

2 acclaim   

v.向…欢呼，公认；n.欢呼，喝彩，称赞

参考例句：

• He was welcomed with great acclaim.他受到十分热烈的欢迎。
• His achievements earned him the acclaim of the scientific community.他的成就赢得了科学界的赞誉。

3 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。

4 migrations   

n.迁移，移居( migration的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It foundered during the turmoils accompanying the Great Migrations. 它在随着民族大迁徙而出现的混乱中崩溃。 来自辞典例句
• Birds also have built-in timepieces which send them off on fall and spring migrations. 鸟类也有天生的时间感应器指导它们秋春迁移。 来自互联网

5 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

6 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

7 maudlin   

adj.感情脆弱的，爱哭的

参考例句：

• He always becomes maudlin after he's had a few drinks.他喝了几杯酒后总是变得多愁善感。
• She continued in the same rather maudlin tone.她继续用那种颇带几分伤感的语调说话。

8 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

9 cleaves   

v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This wood cleaves easily. 这木材好劈。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The water cleaves the banks away like a knife. 河水象一把刀似的，把两岸削掉。 来自辞典例句

10 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。

11 labors   

v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转

参考例句：

• He was tiresome in contending for the value of his own labors. 他老为他自己劳动的价值而争强斗胜，令人生厌。 来自辞典例句
• Farm labors used to hire themselves out for the summer. 农业劳动者夏季常去当雇工。 来自辞典例句

12 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。