VOA慢速英语2010-THIS IS AMERICA - After 40 Years, Record

BARBARA KLEIN:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein. Rounder Records is an independent music company celebrating its fortieth anniversary. Rounder is a major label that specializes in roots music, including bluegrass and old-time country. This week on our program, we look at Rounder's history and listen to some of its artists.

(MUSIC: ALISON KRAUSS and ROBERT PLANT - "Rich Woman")

That was Alison Krauss and Robert Plant with "Rich Woman." That song received one of the more than fifty Grammy Awards that have gone to Rounder recordings².

Two men and a woman started the company in nineteen seventy. Ken³ Irwin, Bill Nowlin and Marian Leighton Levy⁴ were friends. They knew each other from their college days in the Boston, Massachusetts, area in the nineteen sixties. They were not musicians, but they had seen people whose music they thought should be documented.

A few months ago, Ken Irwin and Marian Leighton Levy spoke⁵ on Tuned⁶ In Broadcasting's "Music Business Radio" program from Nashville.

Ken Irwin told how he got the idea to start a record company after meeting someone else who wanted to do the same. But he says he and his two friends didn't really know much about the music business.

KEN IRWIN: "So when this thought came about starting a record label we already had a few ideas of people that we'd like to record. But even after that, even after our first two records which came out in nineteen seventy, our only initial goal was to make one record which we thought would be a classic in a field. So if you thought about fiddle⁷ records, we would have one of the great fiddle records that would make it into the top ten or top banjo record. But we certainly didn't have goals. I don't know if we had ever heard of Grammys at that point. Or if we had they certainly wouldn't have entered our consciousness."

Rounder Records celebrated⁸ its fortieth anniversary with a concert in October at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. Public television stations around the country broadcast the event last month, and Rounder has released a concert album.

One of Rounder's artists is sometimes called the best banjo player in the world. Bela Fleck⁹ brings a modern sound to this traditional string instrument.

Bela Fleck

Here he is at the Rounder concert performing "Another Morning."

(MUSIC)

Another Rounder artist is Mary Chapin Carpenter. On April twenty-seventh she will receive the "Spirit of Americana" Free Speech in Music Award at the Newseum, a museum of news in Washington. That same day her new album "The Age of Miracles" comes out.

Mary Chapin Carpenter released her first album for Rounder in two thousand seven. "The Calling" included this song which she performed at the fortieth anniversary concert, "Why Shouldn't We?"

(MUSIC)

Other Rounder artists include groups that perform the music of the Creole and Cajun cultures of Louisiana. At the anniversary concert, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas played "Think About the Good Times."

(MUSIC)

Nathan Williams of Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas performs in New Orleans in 2008

Minnie Driver joined Rounder Records in two thousand one. The performer from Britain was already known as an actress. She was in films such as "Circle of Friends," "Big Night" and "Good Will Hunting."

At the Rounder anniversary concert, she performed a song from her two thousand seven album "Seastories." Here is "Beloved."

(MUSIC)

Another Rounder recording¹ artist is Alison Krauss. She signed with the label when was a young bluegrass fiddler from Champaign, Illinois. She was just fourteen years old. Now she is thirty-eight and has twenty-seven Grammy Awards.

Her group Union Station includes the famous dobro guitar player Jerry Douglas. At the Rounder anniversary concert, Alison Krauss and Union Station played "Restless" from their album "Lonely Runs Both Ways."

(MUSIC)

We leave you now with the grand finale that brought the fortieth anniversary concert for Rounder Records to a close.

(MUSIC: ROUNDER ARTISTS - "Angels Watching Over Me, I’ll Fly Away and Down By The Riverside")

Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver¹⁰. I'm Barbara Klein. You can find transcripts¹¹, MP3s and podcasts of our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also write about your favorite musicians and tell us about others you would like to hear. Visit us at our Web site and on Facebook, at VOA Learning English. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

 

1 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。

2 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

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 levy   

n.征收税或其他款项，征收额

参考例句：

• They levy a tax on him.他们向他征税。
• A direct food levy was imposed by the local government.地方政府征收了食品税。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 tuned   

adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• The resort is tuned in to the tastes of young and old alike. 这个度假胜地适合各种口味，老少皆宜。
• The instruments should be tuned up before each performance. 每次演出开始前都应将乐器调好音。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 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。

8 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

9 fleck   

n.斑点，微粒 vt.使有斑点，使成斑驳

参考例句：

• The garlic moss has no the yellow fleck and other virus. 蒜苔无黄斑点及其它病毒。
• His coat is blue with a grey fleck.他的上衣是蓝色的，上面带有灰色的斑点。

10 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

11 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句