The Musicambia Songbook
About the Album
The Musicambia Songbook features 18 original compositions written over the last 11 years by current and formerly incarcerated songwriters from Musicambia’s educational programs across multiple correctional facilities.
Spanning a wide variety of styles ranging from rap, R&B, and pop-punk to heartfelt ballads and classical string quartets, often decorated with elaborate string and brass arrangements, The Musicambia Songbook offers one of the most sonically ambitious albums to emerge from America’s correctional system.
💿 Release Date: June 26, 2026, via Long Echo Records
🎵 Listen to our second single, "Decision to Love."
Our second single, “Decision to Love,” is by currently incarcerated composer J.W., with vocals by Myosha. J.W.’s opera, 9131: A Sing Sing Opera, was performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in 2023. "Decision to Love” speaks to the power of unconditional love and is a powerful message to his newborn daughter.
🎵 Listen to our first single, "Pride."
Out now is “Pride,” the album’s first single, by D.S., a current student in Musicambia’s Flagship Program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, with vocals by Alumnus Kenyatta Emmanuel. Through his lyrics, D.S. explores what self-accountability looks like under the weight of systemic oppression.
“This album represents our community like a family photo album: The songs are snapshots of times and places in the past, some more recent than others, and of the stories told by different members of the community. The Songbook is a story of our struggle, of our wins and our losses, our ups and our downs, and our challenges and tribulations.”
-Musicambia Alumnus and Board Vice President Ivan Calaff
The Musicambia Songbook Credits:
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Victory (Alfred Roberts + Yoshi)
No Father There Town (Lingo)
State of Emergency (Izzy Ali)
Wake Me Up (A.T.)
Don't Ever Tell (Robbie Pollock)
You Don't See My Pain (O.M.)
Pride (D.S.)
Decision to Love (J.W.)
Is it the Distance? (M.H. + Elliot Cole)
The Price of Freedom (A.S.)
Process (A.M.)
Under Dark (H.D.J.)
Hey There Serrano (Kenyatta Emmanuel)
Breathe Darlin (I.M. + T.I.)
Dying Moon (A.S.)
Go Through the Night (Yoshi)
Estela (V.H.)
Today, I Felt Like Crying (Shadrich Blackwell + Nathan Schram)
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Izzy Ali, vocals
Trina Basu, violin
Hamilton Berry, cello
Shadrich Blackwell, words
Ivan Calaff, vocals, percussion
Elliot Cole, vocals, piano, bass
Kenyatta Emmanuel, vocals, backup vocals
Jan Esbra, guitar
Sarah Goldfeather, vocals, violin
Katie Hyun, violin
Lingo, vocals
Robbie Pollock, vocals, backup vocals
Alfred Roberts, vocals
Karl Ronneburg, drums
Nathan Schram, viola, electronics
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John Carlson, trumpet
Sarah Elizabeth Charles, vocals
Nick Grinder, trombone
Peter Hess, saxophone
Myosha, vocals
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Produced and mixed by Elliot Cole
Arrangements by Elliot Cole
Additional mixing by Christopher Botta
Mastered by Joseph Branciforte
ABOUT
MUSICAMBIA
Musicambia (“music” + “change”) helps people in prison and jail write, play, and perform music, cultivating collaborative communities that benefit the health and well-being of everyone involved. Its Flagship Program, which began at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in 2014, meets weekly from September to June, providing over four hours of weekly instruction to 30 incarcerated participants. Musicambia has created programs in 12 facilities across six states.
ABOUT
THE CAMBIA COLLECTIVE
The Cambia Collective is Musicambia’s band of Teaching Artists and Alumni. The Collective, which performs exclusively music written by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, has appeared at the Cutting Room, Cell Theater, DiMenna Center, and Abraham House in New York City, and at Green Ossining’s Earth Day Festival, the Sing Sing Prison Museum’s UNSUNG conversation series in Westchester County.
Pre-order the Album today!
PRESS CONTACTS
Shawn Jaeger, Executive Director, Musicambia
shawn@musicambia.org
musicambia.org
Jan Esbra, Long Echo Records
music@longechorecords.com
longechorecords.com