About

In 2004, Jeb Banner created Musical Family Tree as a website with the mission of “Spreading Indiana Music”.  It offered what at the time was a unique opportunity for the music community, the ability for artists to post their music and for fans to access it and build a community around that connection.

Through the years, MFT served a number of different roles in the community. From an online forum to creating blogs on music, then to creating physical media, zines and more. We have released tapes and cds, served as promoters, venue owners and a record store. Under then Executive Director Jon Rogers and board member Oreo Jones, MFT was a key to the creation of the Chreece hip-hop festival and a number of other events locally.

In 2020 as COVID 19 forced the closure of the music industry worldwide, MFT served as a leader, connecting music venues and the community to resources at a time of crisis. We helped found the Indiana Independent Venue Alliance, serving as their non-profit financial partner. We worked with the City of Indianapolis and the Indy Music Strategy to build out a grants program awarding CARES Act funding to cover operational costs for 27 music venues in Indianapolis. Altogether we connected Indiana music venues to almost half a million dollars worth of funding in 2020.

Today we serve as a community organization for people passionate about Indiana music.

Our archive of original Indiana music is the only archive of its type in the world. The MFT Archive has thousands of songs not available anywhere else.

Our Listen Local newsletter keeps concert-goers in Central Indiana up-to-date on what original music is available each week at local music venues.

Our Musician’s Fund, launching in 2024, will offer direct funding to Central Indiana musicians. Applications will open soon!

Our EP in a Weekend project brings together musicians that have never worked together and gives them access to a studio for a weekend with the sole purposes of creating new music with new friends.

We appreciate you supporting MFT as a volunteer as well as a donor. In helping MFT you are helping preserve and extend the legacy of Indiana music.

Reach out to us to learn more about volunteering.

Donate to support MFT.