文斯·吉爾最新專輯創(chuàng)下新高:“我從未預(yù)料到它”

Think you’ve heard that old chestnut of a song, “Danny Boy,” more than enough times? Yeah, so did Vince Gill.

你是不是聽過那首老掉牙的歌"丹尼小子"聽夠多遍了?是的，文斯·吉爾也是。

So what possessed him to include it on his latest album? Who cares? All you really need to know is that this song, delivered by one of country’s G.O.A.T. voices, will leave you heaving sighs and wiping away tears.

那么是什么讓他把這首歌收錄進(jìn)了他的最新專輯呢?誰在乎呢?你真正需要知道的是，這首歌，由國家的G.O.A.T.的聲音之一，會讓你嘆氣，擦干眼淚。

Even the usually self-effacing Gill admits he was impressed. “I’ve been singing for a long, long, long, long time on a lot of records — 50 years,” says the 66-year-old Hall of Fame member, “and I sang a couple of notes in that recording that are some of my favorite notes I’ve ever hit. Just the sound — the controlled little bit of vibrato and everything about it — was really moving to me, and I never expected it.”

就連一向謙遜的吉爾也承認(rèn)自己被打動了。這位66歲的名人堂成員說:“我唱了很長、很長、很長、很長一段時間，在很多唱片上都有50年了，我在那些唱片中唱了幾個音符，這些音符是我最喜歡的一些音符。”僅僅是聲音——那一點(diǎn)可控的顫音和有關(guān)它的一切——就真的打動了我，我從來沒有想到過。”

Of course, country fans live for moments like this, and Gill, even more, lives to make them. Blessedly, for the rest of us, it’s why he keeps doing it.

當(dāng)然，鄉(xiāng)村樂迷們就是為了這樣的時刻而活，而吉爾更是為了創(chuàng)造這樣的時刻而活。幸運(yùn)的是，對我們其他人來說，這就是他一直這么做的原因。

This time around, “Danny Boy” is nestled amid 10 other equally sublime tracks on Gill’s latest collaboration with his frequent musical partner, virtuoso steel guitarist Paul Franklin: Sweet Memories: The Music of Ray Price & The Cherokee Cowboys.

這一次，“丹尼男孩”在吉爾與他的音樂伙伴，精湛的鋼鐵吉他手保羅·富蘭克林的最新合作中，與其他10首同樣崇高的曲目相結(jié)合:甜蜜的回憶:雷·普萊斯和切諾基牛仔的音樂。

On Friday, the two men learned one of those tracks, "Kissing Your Picture (Is So Cold)," has been nominated for a Grammy for best country duo/group performance. No doubt its title is a throwback to a different era in country music: Price originally released the song in 1958. But both Gill and Franklin offer assurances that — though they performed it with conviction — the songwriter, Mel Tillis, another country legend, probably had his famously stuttering tongue in cheek. "He was such a comedian," says Franklin.

周五，兩人得知其中一首歌曲《Kissing Your Picture (Is So Cold)》被提名為格萊美最佳鄉(xiāng)村二人組/組合。毫無疑問，這首歌的名字是對鄉(xiāng)村音樂另一個時代的回顧:普萊斯最初在1958年發(fā)行了這首歌。但吉爾和富蘭克林都保證，盡管他們的表演很有說服力，但另一位鄉(xiāng)村傳奇歌曲作者梅爾·蒂利斯(Mel Tillis)可能是在開玩笑，他那出了名的口吃。“他真是個喜劇演員，”富蘭克林說。

Sweet Memories is Gill and Franklin's second album together, following 2013's Bakersfield, which featured the music of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. While both projects fall under the category of “tribute” albums, they are much more playgrounds for the two men’s fertile — and like-minded — musical spirits. “Fun” is the word that keeps coming up as they talk about the album. It was fun, they say, to discover and learn new music, fun to pick the songs, fun to get into the studio and combine their singular voices, Gill’s sweet tenor and Franklin’s smooth steel.

Sweet Memories是Gill和Franklin繼2013年的《Bakersfield》(由Merle Haggard和Buck Owens合作)之后的第二張專輯。雖然這兩張專輯都屬于“致敬”專輯的范疇，但它們更像是兩人豐富而志同道合的音樂精神的游樂場。“有趣”是他們在談?wù)撨@張專輯時不斷出現(xiàn)的一個詞。他們說，發(fā)現(xiàn)和學(xué)習(xí)新的音樂很有趣，挑選歌曲很有趣，進(jìn)入錄音室，把他們獨(dú)特的聲音，吉爾甜美的男高音和富蘭克林流暢的鋼鐵聲結(jié)合起來很有趣。

The sound of those bended strings, Gill submits, “is the most reminiscent of the human voice, and I think that’s why I’m so drawn to it. I love the sound of the instrument with my voice.” Franklin returns the love to Gill. “His voice is like a musical instrument,” says the 69-year-old musician, who’s played on Gill’s recordings since “When I Called Your Name,” his first major hit. “It’s as flawless and as pure as you can get.”

吉爾認(rèn)為，那些彎曲的琴弦的聲音“最能讓人想起人類的聲音，我想這就是我被它吸引的原因。”我喜歡樂器的聲音和我的聲音。”富蘭克林把愛還給了吉爾。“他的聲音就像一件樂器，”這位69歲的音樂家說，自從他的第一首熱門歌曲《當(dāng)我呼喚你的名字》以來，他就一直在吉爾的唱片中演奏。“它是你能得到的最完美、最純凈的東西。”

Picking the music of Ray Price was fun, as well, for the two men, but it was also an act of love. Both are lifelong fans who’ve been deeply influenced by the country legend and his ace band, the Cherokee Cowboys, and both knew Price personally. In Gill’s storied career as an artist, guitarist, and songwriter, he crossed paths with his hero several times, and Gill and Franklin both contributed to his last album, Beauty Is … The Final Sessions, recorded in 2013 soon after Price was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died, at age 87, in December that year.

為雷·普萊斯挑選音樂對兩人來說也很有趣，但這也是一種愛的行為。兩人都是普萊斯的終身粉絲，深受這位鄉(xiāng)村傳奇人物和他的王牌樂隊(duì)切羅基牛仔隊(duì)的影響，兩人都認(rèn)識普萊斯。在吉爾作為藝術(shù)家、吉他手和詞曲作者的傳奇生涯中，他與他的偶像多次相遇，吉爾和富蘭克林都為他的最后一張專輯《Beauty Is…The Final Sessions》做出了貢獻(xiàn)，這張專輯是在2013年普萊斯被診斷出患有胰腺癌后不久錄制的。同年12月，他去世，享年87歲。

These days Price’s name is not commonly included in the same breath as Willie, Waylon, Jones and Haggard, but Gill points out that Price was among their great inspirations — and the one who “took all those cats under his wing.”

如今，普賴斯的名字通常不會與威利、韋倫、瓊斯和哈格德相提并論，但吉爾指出，普賴斯是他們最偉大的靈感來源之一，是他“把所有的貓都放在他的翅膀下”。

“There’s just a grand history of Ray having the respect of all those people because of the way he sang,” says Gill. “They would tell you, to the man, that’s the guy. That’s the singer right there.”

“因?yàn)樗难莩绞?，雷贏得了所有這些人的尊重，這是一段偉大的歷史，”吉爾說。“他們會告訴你，對那個男人來說，他就是那個人。那就是歌手。”

In fact, Willie Nelson, who briefly played bass in Price’s band in the early 1960s, created his own tribute album in 2016, and both Gill and Franklin appeared on several of its tracks. Nelson mostly chose from Price’s hit parade, including his groundbreaking shuffle, “Crazy Arms” (its swinging 4/4 beat soon took over country); his aching “Make the World Go Away”; his smooth countrypolitan “For the Good Times”; and the Nelson-written masterpiece, “Night Life,” with its signature steel intro.

事實(shí)上，威利·納爾遜曾在20世紀(jì)60年代初在普萊斯的樂隊(duì)中短暫擔(dān)任貝斯手，他在2016年創(chuàng)作了自己的致敬專輯，吉爾和富蘭克林都出現(xiàn)在其中的幾首曲目中。尼爾森大多選擇了普萊斯的熱門歌曲，包括他開創(chuàng)性的歌曲Crazy Arms(搖擺的4/4節(jié)奏很快風(fēng)靡鄉(xiāng)村音樂);他那令人心痛的《讓世界消失》;他流暢的鄉(xiāng)村政治“為了好時光”;以及納爾遜的杰作Night Life，帶有標(biāo)志性的鋼鐵引子。