美国国家公共电台 NPR Keeper Of Southern Folklife Is Up For 2 Grammy Awards

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Grammy Awards come next weekend in Los Angeles. Among this year's nominees¹ is Southern folklorist² William Ferris. Now, you probably will not see him outside Staples³ Center fending⁴ off the paparazzi. But if you do not know his name, you should. And here's your chance. His newest album "Voices Of Mississippi" is nominated in two categories. It's a collection of recordings⁵ that Ferris started making while he was still a teenager in the 1960s in the Mississippi Delta⁶ where he grew up. Decades later, he would go on to serve as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. And today as part of their Keepers series, The Kitchen Sisters and producer Barrett Golding bring us William Ferris, keeper of Southern folklife.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ISAAC THOMAS: This man here, he's calling upon the Lord, telling the Lord to remember him...

BILL FERRIS: Reverend Isaac Thomas, 1968, Rose Hill Church.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

THOMAS: ...And did nothing for the establishment of the kingdom.

FERRIS: My name is Bill Ferris. I teach Southern folklore⁷, music and literature at the University of North Carolina in Chapel⁸ Hill. The oral tradition...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FERRIS: Reverend Thomas, when you preach, you have a special style. How did you develop that?

THOMAS: Well, sometime, you have a prepared sermon. But if you study God's word, he said, open your mouth and I'll speak through you.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Right.

THOMAS: And then you don't need no paper to get it all.

...Didn't feed those who were hungry.

FERRIS: I grew up on a farm in Warren County, Miss. It was very isolated⁹. My family were the only white family on the farm. There were black families. And we were a community. The children played together. And men in those families worked with my father in the fields.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2 AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing) Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord, I'm in your hand, in your hand. Oh, Lord.

FERRIS: When I was about four or five, a lady named Mary Gordon would take me every first Sunday to the little black church on the farm, Rose Hill Church.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: That church was there years before I was born, you know. It used to be a big, beautiful - everybody had roses up on that hill. And so that's where it got its name from.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing) Well, I done died.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: Oh, I got lots of relatives buried up on that hill - mother and father, got a brother up there, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2 AND UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Singing) Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord, I'm in your hand.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: We really do appreciate you. We really do believe you're interested in our church.

FERRIS: I always feel like this is my church.

THOMAS: Amen. Amen.

FERRIS: Of all the churches I would want to come to...

THOMAS: This is your church Mr. Ferris. Any time you come home, this is your church. Amen.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing unintelligibly).

FERRIS: Providence¹⁰ Missionary¹¹ Baptist Church in Paulette, Miss., 1967.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing unintelligibly).

FERRIS: You could hear those hymns¹² for a mile or more. They would waft¹³ across the countryside. There's nothing more beautiful than that quiet, still morning with the sound of the hymns coming into your ear.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing) ...On my way. You know that (unintelligible).

FERRIS: When I was a teenager, I got a reel-to-reel tape recorder. And I began to record those services because I realized that the beautiful hymns were sung from memory - there were no hymnals in the church - and that when those families were no longer there, the hymns would simply disappear.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing unintelligibly).

FERRIS: Here at the University of North Carolina, we have the largest archive on the South in the world. All of my collection - about five tons of material - is there. You can hear all my field recordings streamed online, see my films and view photographs. An archive becomes a living, powerful vehicle.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Singing unintelligibly).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FERRIS: In Leland, Miss., Sonny Boy Watson.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FERRIS: I began to record some amazing blues¹⁴ singers that lived a few miles from our farm.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SONNY BOY WATSON: (Singing) Now bring me my shotgun, oh, man, and a pocketful of shell.

FERRIS: When I traveled in the Delta, there were terrible kinds of stories that people would tell me - angry voices describing their experiences in Parchman Penitentiary¹⁵.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: Did you hear about the water boy drowned in the Mobile Bay?

FERRIS: Black people dealing¹⁶ with the white world.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: (Singing) Did you hear about...

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: Oh, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #7: (Singing) The water boy drowned. Did you hear about...

FERRIS: Parchman Penitentiary, the 20,000-acre penal¹⁷ farm, 1968.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Singing) Mobile Bay, Lord, Mobile Bay.

FERRIS: The cheapness of black lives is a theme that runs throughout our entire history from slavery to the present. And sadly, what was associated, in my mind, with Mississippi is now familiar throughout the nation. Hatred¹⁸ is a toxic¹⁹ kind of presence. We simply have to learn to live with one another and to celebrate rather than be threatened by differences. So for me, folklore has always been a way of trying to leverage²⁰ mutual²¹ respect. Everyone is proud of who they are. You're from the country. You're from the city. Your family have lived here generations or they just arrived, they are part of the fabric²² of American culture because that's what this nation is all about.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MISSISSIPPI FRED MCDOWELL: (Singing) I had a dream, dream I had last night. I dreamed I went to the U.N. and set the whole nation right.

FERRIS: Mississippi Fred McDowell accompanied a friend of his as he sang "Went To The U.N. And Set The Whole World Right" (ph).

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MISSISSIPPI FRED MCDOWELL: (Singing) And Washington, they called me. And I went. I had to be a guest of the president.

INSKEEP: That's Mississippi Fred McDowell off the Grammy-nominated album "Voices Of Mississippi" collected by the folklorist William Ferris. Hear more of these voices and other stories from The Keepers series on the podcast The Kitchen Sisters Present.

1 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

2 folklorist   

民俗学研究者

参考例句：

3 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

4 fending   

v.独立生活，照料自己( fend的现在分词 )；挡开，避开

参考例句：

• He is always spending his time fending with the neighbors. 他总是与邻里们吵架。 来自互联网
• Fifth, it is to build safeguarding system and enhance the competence in fending off the risk. 五是建立政策保障体系，提高防范和抵御风险的能力。 来自互联网

5 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

6 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

7 folklore   

n.民间信仰，民间传说，民俗

参考例句：

• Zhuge Liang is a synonym for wisdom in folklore.诸葛亮在民间传说中成了智慧的代名词。
• In Chinese folklore the bat is an emblem of good fortune.在中国的民间传说中蝙蝠是好运的象征。

8 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

9 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

10 providence   

n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝

参考例句：

• It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
• To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。

11 missionary   

adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士

参考例句：

• She taught in a missionary school for a couple of years.她在一所教会学校教了两年书。
• I hope every member understands the value of missionary work. 我希望教友都了解传教工作的价值。

12 hymns   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At first, they played the hymns and marches familiar to them. 起初他们只吹奏自己熟悉的赞美诗和进行曲。 来自英汉非文学 - 百科语料821
• I like singing hymns. 我喜欢唱圣歌。 来自辞典例句

13 waft   

v.飘浮，飘荡；n.一股；一阵微风；飘荡

参考例句：

• The bubble maker is like a sword that you waft in the air.吹出泡泡的东西就像你在空中挥舞的一把剑。
• When she just about fall over,a waft of fragrance makes her stop.在她差点跌倒时，一股幽香让她停下脚步。

14 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。

15 penitentiary   

n.感化院；监狱

参考例句：

• He worked as a warden at the state penitentiary.他在这所州监狱任看守长。
• While he was in the penitentiary her father died and the family broke up.他坐牢的时候，她的父亲死了，家庭就拆散了。

16 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

17 penal   

adj.刑罚的；刑法上的

参考例句：

• I hope you're familiar with penal code.我希望你们熟悉本州法律规则。
• He underwent nineteen years of penal servitude for theft.他因犯了大窃案受过十九年的苦刑。

18 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

19 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

20 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

21 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

22 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。