美国国家公共电台 NPR Both The Food And The Music Are Made From Scratch At This Texas Joint

 

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Out on a lonesome highway in the Texas Hill Country, the night sky is awash with stars, the Angus cattle quietly ruminate¹, and there is a cafe where food and music are made from scratch. It's a seafood² place 90 miles west of Austin, and it's run by a veteran bluesman. Here's NPR's John Burnett on Johnny Nicholas' and his Hilltop Cafe.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE⁴: In the middle of BBQ brisket country, a dinner crowd is throwing back crab⁵ cakes, fried oysters⁶, flounder and stuffed shrimp⁷.

JOHNNY NICHOLAS: This song's for all of you...

BURNETT: On stage is the establishment's owner...

NICHOLAS: ...Who have ever had a nice new car or a nice new used car.

BURNETT: ...A 68-year-old Greek-American bluesman who's been performing for half a century.

NICHOLAS: It's called "I'm Broke Again But I Sure Got A Pretty Car."

(LAUGHTER)

BURNETT: The Hilltop opened in 1980. It used to be a gas station and beer joint⁸. Johnny's wife, Brenda, was the genius in the kitchen. He handled the music.

NICHOLAS: (Singing) Well, I spent all my money on a real fine automobile⁹.

BURNETT: Once a month, Nicholas books a dinner concert in the dining room. You're liable to hear Marcia Ball or Jimmy Vaughn or even Bonnie Raitt or Billy Gibbons. Nicholas plays with his regular group, Hellbent, made up of Austin all-stars.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, APPLAUSE)

NICHOLAS: Thank you so much.

BURNETT: The musicians and diners share a boot-scuffed wood floor surrounded by old cabaret posters and neon beer signs. While the Hilltop is in Austin's gravitational field, the tattoo-and-small-dog crowd is nowhere in sight.

MELANY CANFIELD: My name is Melany Canfield. I'm the high school counselor¹⁰ in Mason, Texas, and I've been coming to the Hilltop since I was a little girl.

DICK WINTERS: Well, I'm Dick Winters. I'm from western central Texas. My wife, Susan, and I are both ranchers, started coming here right after Johnny and Brenda first opened it in the '80s. It was a convenient place to stop and have a cold brew¹¹ on a long drive.

BURNETT: It evolved into Zagat-rated restaurant with rigorous standards for freshness. Brenda Nicholas grew much of the produce in her own gardens, and they made six-hour runs to the Gulf¹² Coast to buy snapper, flounder and shrimp right off the docks. Brenda brought her Cajun-influenced seafood recipes from her hometown in southeast Texas and trained the cooks.

SAMMY FAVELLA: Darken the roux so much to where it's like a dark chocolate, and then we'll cool it down.

BURNETT: Sammy Favella has been chef here for the last three years.

FAVELLA: People would come for miles just to have her crawfish etouffee, shrimp, sausage.

BURNETT: Next to the kitchen, Johnny Nicholas takes a seat in the back room by the big stone fireplace. His gray hair is pulled into a ponytail. He has a soul patch under his lower lip, and his face bespeaks¹³ the years he spent on the road. After he met Brenda, they made the decision to start a family and open the Hilltop.

NICHOLAS: Our primary motivation is to serve people food and music that we love, that we would like to eat or listen to. And that's what people get about it. That's what's special about Hilltop.

BURNETT: Last year, Brenda died after a long struggle against lymphoma and leukemia. To defray the medical expenses, Johnny's friend Eric Clapton donated his Stratocaster. It brought $45,000 at auction¹⁴. With Brenda gone, Nicholas has turned the cafe over to his two sons so he can throw all of his energy back into his music career.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ROLL ON MISSISSIPPI")

NICHOLAS: (Singing) Roll on Mississippi. We've passed this way before. Hear you in the wind, I can hear you moan. Your lonesome whistle trying to call me home.

BURNETT: Nicholas grew up in Rhode Island, drifted to Ann Arbor¹⁵, Chicago, southwest Louisiana and finally Austin. His collaborations in the 1970s and '80s read like an encyclopedia¹⁶ of American roots music, from blues³ greats Johnny Shines, Big Walter Horton and Roosevelt Sykes to Cajun accordionist¹⁷ Nathan Abshire. Nicholas also played with Asleep at the Wheel. Today, he's still known as a bluesman, but much of the time, he doesn't sound like.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHNNY NICHOLAS SONG, "FRESH AIR")

BURNETT: He puts things in his music, unexpected chord changes and a certain tenderness that you don't hear in the hard-driving blues-rock bands that dominate the genre¹⁸ these days.

NICHOLAS: To me, I don't find it incongruous to have songs with lots of changes and different grooves¹⁹ than your standard blues. That does not exclude them from being blues.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FRESH AIR")

NICHOLAS: (Singing) Will the circle be unbroken? What kind of words be spoken as windows start to open everywhere? Will the words that you can't find ever escape your mind and blossom in your garden of despair? Can't you use a little fresh air?

BURNETT: That's the title track from his critically acclaimed²⁰ latest album "Fresh Air." Most of the songs on it are his own. Nicholas says he began writing more after the death in 2009 of his friend Stephen Bruton. The revered²¹ Austin musician was such a regular, the Hilltop named a dish after him - Oysters Bruton.

NICHOLAS: I've always written songs but never really focused on it and was a little afraid of it, too. And so when Stephen passed, and he was such a great writer, I just said, you know what? This is a wakeup call.

BURNETT: Even though he's back on the road singing and playing guitar and piano, he hasn't forgotten what his late wife told him on her deathbed.

NICHOLAS: We sat down. She said I've got to talk to you. This is very important, and she said, you have to promise me that if you can't keep Hilltop up to my standards that you'll lock the doors. And I said, I promise, absolutely.

BURNETT: And so while the chef is in the kitchen tenderizing beef cutlets for chicken-fried steak, Johnny Nicolas is out in the dining room pounding out his special brand of blues.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOHNNY NICHOLAS SONG, "BLUES TIME")

BURNETT: John Burnett, NPR News, Austin.

NICHOLAS: (Singing) Working at the car wash in the Texas sun. Washing and waxing till my work in done. All the pretty women in the big Mercedes Benz, I need a hundred dollars just to pay my rent.

1 ruminate   

v.反刍；沉思

参考例句：

• It is worth while to ruminate over his remarks.他的话值得玩味。
• The cow began to ruminate after eating up grass.牛吃完草后开始反刍。

2 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

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 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

6 oysters   

牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
• She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。

7 shrimp   

n.虾，小虾；矮小的人

参考例句：

• When the shrimp farm is built it will block the stream.一旦养虾场建起来，将会截断这条河流。
• When it comes to seafood,I like shrimp the best.说到海鲜，我最喜欢虾。

8 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

9 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

10 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

11 brew   

v.酿造，调制

参考例句：

• Let's brew up some more tea.咱们沏些茶吧。
• The policeman dispelled the crowd lest they should brew trouble.警察驱散人群，因恐他们酿祸。

12 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

13 bespeaks   

v.预定( bespeak的第三人称单数 )；订（货）；证明；预先请求

参考例句：

• The tone of his text bespeaks a certain tiredness. 他的笔调透出一种倦意。 来自辞典例句
• His record as mayor of New York bespeaks toughness. 他作为纽约市长态度十分强烈。 来自互联网

14 auction   

n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖

参考例句：

• They've put the contents of their house up for auction.他们把房子里的东西全都拿去拍卖了。
• They bought a new minibus with the proceeds from the auction.他们用拍卖得来的钱买了一辆新面包车。

15 arbor   

n.凉亭；树木

参考例句：

• They sat in the arbor and chatted over tea.他们坐在凉亭里，边喝茶边聊天。
• You may have heard of Arbor Day at school.你可能在学校里听过植树节。

16 encyclopedia   

n.百科全书

参考例句：

• The encyclopedia fell to the floor with a thud.那本百科全书砰的一声掉到地上。
• Geoff is a walking encyclopedia.He knows about everything.杰夫是个活百科全书，他什么都懂。

17 accordionist   

n.手风琴师

参考例句：

18 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。

19 grooves   

n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏

参考例句：

• Wheels leave grooves in a dirt road. 车轮在泥路上留下了凹痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sliding doors move in grooves. 滑动门在槽沟中移动。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

20 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

21 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句