Listening exercise
NPR: Musicians in Their Own Words
Abigail Washburn: Chinese Lyrics, American Roots
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4840756
(Try the "Download" button)
Abigail Washburn's Website: http://www.abigailwashburn.com/website/

Vocabulary:
Illinois
old-time
banjo
to deliver lyrics
it turns out...
Chengdu
immersion
to inspire one
to reconnect with
roots
Musicians in their own words
skeptical (UK: sceptical)
to come out with an album
definitely
to look at it and go = to look at it and say
"Who is she to be doing that?"
to be laughed at
to be thought of as a novel
"It's just me!"
There's no way around
opera
old folks
retired
audience
I don't know what I'm doin'
a loose sense of rhythm
emotive quality
musical representation
flow
emotional swells
grief
to turn one's back
The Lost Lamb
Vermont
Nashville
to work with s.o.
to come to the States
to bring one's family with one
fellow
to have s.o. over for dinner
to look downtrodden
to start a new life without s.o.
to use imagery
classical Chinese poetry
ancient home
at the greatest edge of loneliness
Grandpa
halo
nursing home
to comment on
Jesus
tape recorder
dementia
to make perfect sense
to be loose enough to...
to be lucid enough to...
to make sense of things
to light s.o. up
comforting
to share the same pool of emotions that we draw from
to be unique in


Listening comprehension questions:
1. a. What did Abigail Washburn learn first, the banjo, or Chinese? b. How did she learn Chinese?
2. What is Washburn's reaction to other people's skepticism regarding her unusual kind of eclectic music?
3. What kinds of inspiration did Washburn pick up from her experiences attending traditional opera in Sichuan?
4. Briefly, what inspired Washburn's song, "The Lost Lamb"?
5. Where did the idea for Washburn's song, "Halo", come from?
6. What kinds of things that Washburn's grandfather said did Washburn say she found most interesting? Quote Washburn's play on words in this description.
7. What does Washburn say she most wants to express in her songs?
8. What's your own reaction to and appraisal of Washburn's music?

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