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I have the following translation. The speaker just got done saying they were going to sing a certain song first in a karaoke bar.

二曲目は、
アメリカのスピリット、
ジョンデンバーのカントリーロードがいいかもしれませんね。

So far I have the following.

As for the second song,
America's Spirit
John Denver's Country Road might be good huh?

I looked up John Denver. He had an album called Spirit and a song called Country Road. But it doesn't look like the song was on that album.

I do not know why there isn't any particle between the second and third lines of this sentence. Nor do I know how the whole sentence comes together.

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スピリット has nothing to do with the album title "Spirit" here. The speaker is just calling John Denver "アメリカのスピリット".

There is no particle needed between アメリカのスピリット and ジョンデンバー because if you look closely, there is a comma.

「アメリカのスピリット、ジョンデンバー」=「アメリカのスピリットであるジョンデンバー」

One could say, if one wanted to 「アメリカのスピリットのジョンデンバー」 as far as grammar but it does not sound very refined so the speaker did not say it that way.

The fact that the sentence is written in three lines instead of one may be part of the reason that you find it dificult to understand, too.

"For our/your/the second song, 'Country Road' by America's Spirit, John Denver, might be good, huh?"

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  • Oh, interesting. I had no idea commas could change the necessity for particles. I feel I need to come up with a better translation for "spirit" though. Maybe "America's spiritual singer"? I have noticed that some American words are used in Japanese but don't fit a translation that well. For example, in an earlier sentence said he'd be a "hero" for singing a certain song. Dec 15, 2013 at 22:58

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