October 27th!

Funds go to an acoustic guitar for Radical Reversal’s music studio at Jefferson County Youth Detention (B’ham, AL).

June 30th, NYC!
Our first Instruments Into Prisons Benefit Concert will raise funds for hand percussion instruments for Musicambia’s Bedford Hills Prison music program.

Update: we were able to send:

Meinl PP-1 Hand Percussion Pack
Meinl Hybrid Slaptop Cajon
Meinl Make Your Own Cajon Kit
Remo Fiberskyn 16” Frame Drum

🚨 BIG THINGS COMING! 🚨

As we move into our FREER era in 2024, we see vast potential in the Instruments Into Prisons (IIP) program. We believe it is a natural extension of FREER Records’ mission to not only build the careers of artists we work with, but to spread those resources even further when possible. Moving forward, our goal is to relaunch this initiative starting with a series of NYC-based benefit concerts to help fund the very real costs of moving donated and/or newly purchased gear into the hands of artists inside of prisons across the country.

In 2023, IIP changed its pace and redirected its course. After two years of fierce commitment and output, donating over $18K worth of gear to over 12 facilities, this volunteer-run effort took a down-shift in momentum as we geared up for our epically massive Ten Year Celebration of Die Jim Crow. We faced this down-scaling head-on with a publicized push to fulfill as many outstanding gear requests from musicians inside as possible before winding down the effort, which we were able to accomplish minus a few exceptions.

As we re-launch, our goal with IIP is a quality-over-quantity approach, emphasizing fewer but more intentional donations with the added goal of increased transparency and efforts to follow-up with their usage inside.

Our biggest need right now is purchasing equipment, but if you have any of it, please contact t[.]jamison[at]freerrecords[.]com to discuss next steps. 🤝