Homeless veterans in Los Angeles see Michelle Mayne-Graves as an angel of mercy, not only for her beautiful voice, but for the work she does helping them. In addition to directing choirs, performing spirituals and helping to coordinate and lead veterans singing groups, Michelle supervises a team and works as the RN Case Manager for Housing Homeless Veterans at the Veteran’s Administration in Los Angeles.
Michelle sings gospel, spirituals, pop, lullabies and jazz. Michelle sings Handel and Mozart too! Whatever music one puts in front of Michelle, she absorbs it, makes it her own and makes it great, sharing priceless music in large concert halls, intimate churches and with students on university campuses.
To book Michelle Mayne-Graves or Lifeline Quartet, please contact:
Jason Marcil
Ed Keane Associates (857) 816-3601 jason@edkeane.com
Tech Rider
Michelle and her Lifeline Quartet speak truth with their singing. Michelle’s magical arrangements on her first Yarlung CD honor Harriet Tubman and the countless unnamed heroes who helped slaves flee the South to find freedom in the Northern States and Canada. Music Samples
Human slavery, part of human history from the beginnings of our civilizations on earth, remains one of the worst aspects of our story on this planet. We live with the wounds from slavery every day, particularly in the United States, where African slaves powered the plantation industries in the South before the Civil War. These wounds heal overtime, but with scar tissue. More than 150 years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation declaring the end of slavery in the South, inequality of opportunity and achievement for people from different ethnic backgrounds remains a serious problem in modern society.
Underground Railroad (the name of Michelle’s first Yarlung CD and the name of one of her concert offerings) celebrates spirituals from the Civil War era and before. Escape routes to the North were nicknamed “The Underground Railroad,” and Harriet Tubman was one of its most celebrated “conductors.” This program celebrates some of the spirituals that were adopted by the Underground Railroad and served as memory aides and morale boosters for escaping slaves. In addition to their religious content, these spirituals contained hidden clues and navigational instructions and are therefore known as code songs. Harriet Tubman herself was reputed to use Wade in the Water to remind escaping slaves where they should walk in rivers and streams to avoid the scent hounds of the slave catchers.
It is Michelle’s hope that this music will help liberate us from whatever imprisonment in which we may find ourselves, whether physical slavery, psychological slavery or drug addiction. We can use the power of these code songs to remind ourselves that there is a way out and there are people to help us.
We chose If I can Help Somebody to be our opening track on the CD. This song not only honors Harriet Tubman, but reveals Michelle’s generous heart as well. Michelle lives what she sings.