VOA标准英语2014--Female Blues Singers Shine in Memphis 蓝调女歌手走红美国孟菲斯

 

Female Blues¹ Singers Shine in Memphis 蓝调女歌手走红美国孟菲斯

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE — When the first blues recordings² appeared in the early 1920s, women singers like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were the stars. But over the years since then, men have come to dominate the blues scene.  Women continue to sing the blues, though, and their talents were on display in Memphis, Tennessee recently at an event held outside the International Blues Challenge.

She sounds like she came right out of the Mississippi Delta³, but singer Eleanor Tsaig and the Ori Naftaly band are from Israel, where she says blues music is starting to gain an audience.

"The Jewish people have a lot to sing the blues about," Tsaig said.

She and the band members now live in Memphis and they came to the Center for Southern Folklore⁴ to perform at The Women in Blues Showcase.

"We are all women, we are all sisters and it's the blues, you know, so it is just great, so much fun," Tsaig said.

"This is their chance not to just celebrate blues, but the feminine aspect of blues… these are the young performers who have young ideas, young dreams, young goals," said Judy Peiser, director of the Center for Southern Folklore.

But event organizer Michele Seidman says she and co-organizer Terri Robbins want to counter the resistance they say exists to booking women in clubs and festivals.

"We often have to fight harder to get the same respect as the guys, so we have to bring it harder, we bring in every bit of fire, passion and soul that we have go," she said.

Robbins says women have a lot to offer to blues music.

“They bring guts⁵, deep-roots soul, passion, I think,” she said.

An example of that is Lady Rose, who came to the showcase from the eastern U.S. state of Maryland.

"I put my heart and soul into what I am doing and I think it shows in what I sing and audiences really appreciate that," she said.

She says her biggest reward comes from fans who tell her she made them cry.

"It really makes you feel good that you can touch someone," she said.

 

Lady Rose says it is important for young women to have successful female blues performers to emulate⁶ -- as they develop their own styles and reach down deep to express their own feelings.

1 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。

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 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。

4 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。

5 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 emulate   

v.努力赶上或超越，与…竞争；效仿

参考例句：

• You must work hard to emulate your sister.你必须努力工作，赶上你姐姐。
• You must look at the film and try to emulate his behavior.你们必须观看这部电影，并尽力模仿他的动作。