Description
Executive Producers: Craig & Diane Martin
Repertoire:
1 If I Can Help Somebody
2 Steal Away To Jesus
3 Canaan’s Land – Fare Ye Well Medley
4 Wade In The Water
5 Talk About A Child
6 Deep River
7 Hold On To The Gospel Plow
8 Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen
9 Down By The Riverside
10 Motherless Child
11 Ain’t Goin’ – Joshua Fit De’ Battle
12 Saints’ Medley
Craig and Diane Martin join the other Yarlung team members in dedicating this album to President Mike Wechsberg and Chairman Bob Levi and the valiant members of the Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society. Mike Wechsberg commented “This is my favorite type of album: an audiophile masterpiece with extraordinary soundstaging and delicate ambience in a beautiful auditorium. You can use this LP to test for phase coherency in a system and in the listening room. You’ll know when it is right. One can feel the audience too, all around you. And don’t be surprised if you join in with the occasional ‘Amen!’ But more than the sound, this is gripping music beautifully performed by four people you will love if you do not know them already. The members of Lifeline Quartet sing from their hearts as much as from their four impressive pairs of vocal chords. These are songs of deep longing, yearning for freedom, eternal hope and the promise of transcendence.”
Michael Fremer writes that Lifeline: Music of the Underground Railroad is “an intensely transparent and three-dimensional recording produced live in front of an audience in the 500 seat Samueli Theater at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California….
“The sound is intensely three-dimensional, especially the sensation of being in the audience when the deserved applause come after each performance. The singers appear before you convincingly effectively spread across the stage….”
—Michael Fremer, Analog Planet, September 17th, 2020
Michelle Mayne-Graves and her Lifeline Quartet perform spirituals from the Civil War era and before, celebrating code songs written as reminders and guides for the Underground Railroad. These spirituals include hidden messages about maps, navigational strategies and timing for slaves to escape toward freedom in the Northern States and Canada.
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. If I can Help Somebody opens our album. This song not only honors Harriet Tubman, but reveals Michelle’s generous heart as well. Michelle lives what she sings. Harriet Tubman is one of the better known heroes who escaped slavery herself and then worked as a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, helping subsequent groups of people flee to the North.
Wade in the Water for example, serves as a reminder for escaping slaves of where to walk in the rivers to make it harder for dogs to scent people escaping at night. I’m On My Way to Canaan’s Land talks about the route to Canada.
Slavery may be the worst chapter in the history of the United States. The scars from slavery may fade over the years but will never go away. It is marvelous and perhaps miraculous to witness the magnificent music created by an oppressed people during and despite this incredible suffering.
–Bob Attiyeh, producer
Rick Brown –
The recording transports me into the venue. My listening room dimensions do not define the soundstage. I hear the space the musicians are occupying in the hall. Low-level information and detail are presented on a background alive with reverberant cues. I ‘feel’ the space.
The LP, pressed by Pallas in Germany is totally silent in replay. No clicks, no pops thru an entire side providing the foundation for the extreme transparency. The musicians play ‘within themselves’ combining discipline and technical mastery into a cohesive interpretation rich in tonal color, textures, and image specificity.
A sonic and technical tour-de-force.
Rick Brown
Hi-Fi One
Carlsbad, CA
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Hi Fi One
Larry S. Johnson –
Songs of the Underground Railroad is superb. The singers are excellent as well as the song selections. Even better the record surfaces are quiet and the disc has no warps. Keep up the good work.
Thanks
Larry
Alan Bubitz –
I picked up a copy of Lifeline on vinyl from Elusive Disc. Wanted to compliment your team on a fantastic recording. I felt like I was in the room with the performers. The pressing was extremely quiet adding to the effect of being in the room. Outstanding!
The size of the soundstage is huge when the other voices come in along with the lead and very clearly delineated on the stage.
Regards, Alan
Blair Kenyon –
If I just graded this album on the engineering, I would give it an easy A+. However, it is truly the performance of such beautiful and important songs that brings it all to life. This is not just an album but a real document of history and you have all done it justice. I only wish I could have been there in person. I am no audiophile. I only late in life came to understand how music and sound affected me. The content of albums has always been enjoyable to me, but the engineering and production side has really started to speak to me. You and your crew have nailed it.