VOA标准英语2013--Texas Teen Examines the Music of the Backyard

 

Texas Teen Examines the Music of the Backyard

At this year's South By Southwest Festival, the Saxon Pub put established Texas singers and their musical offspring onstage together.

For singer John Dee Graham's 13-year-old son, William, this was a debut¹.

Hanging out with famous performers like Jimmie Dale Gilmore is natural for William.

His father says he grew up among musicians. “His first question, when he was learning to talk and he would meet someone, he would go ''What do you play?' because he thought everybody was a musician," he said. 

William is now a skilled guitar player and writes his own songs. “I have always been around music and I have always loved going to shows and listening to music," he said. 

But William also enjoys some quiet moments in one of Austin's nature preserves, where he has time to think about his music, his writing and his many other interests, like architecture, engineering and environmental architecture. 

He has taken classes in these subjects at Northwestern University's program for gifted and talented youth. But he has also had to endure a hipbone disorder² that kept him out of competitive sports.

“It has been hard living and not being able to do the things that other kids have done and I have always observed the world in a certain way and it just gave me all this different stuff I wanted to write about," he said. 

William Graham has great empathy for people suffering from hardship and abuse; he wrote one song about children caught up in wars in Africa.

“It is raising awareness³ about African child soldiers and the children who are being taken away from their homes and given guns to go and fight in an army," he said. 

William credits his father as an inspiration, but John Dee Graham says he provides minimal⁴ guidance to his gifted son.

“As little as possible, because, as an artist, he needs to find his own way, and he is, and, as a kid, he has to find his own way, and he is," he said. 

Jon Dee Graham and his son William, carrying on a family music tradition. 

1 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

2 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

3 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

4 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。