Madi Diaz

With a staggering voice and a gift for poignant melodies and innovative arrangements, Madi Diaz is folding her roots, pop and indie influences into her own paper airplane. The sound of her new EP, Ten Gun Salute, might surprise those who have heard her debut album, Skin and Bone, as Madi and her cohort, Kyle Ryan, veer off into new sonic territories. Toy pianos plink. Fat basslines oomph. Americana overtones give way to imaginative pop structures. All the while there's that amazing voice weaving through. From the simple and sublime "Heavy Heart," to the instantly memorable "Nothing At All," the evocative storytelling of "Love You Now" to the damn-near-epic title track, Ten Gun Salute finds Diaz soaring.

Raised in Lancaster, PA, Diaz moved to Philadelphia with her family to attend Paul Green's School of Rock and wound up a featured pupil in the 2005 documentary film about the program, Rock School. That experience led to three years at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she met Ryan, and the two have been collaborators ever since. Since the release of Skin and Bone, Diaz been performing live, including gigs at the Rocky Mountain Folk Festival, WXPN Philadelphia’s XPoNential Music Festival, the Living Room in New York City and The Basement in her newly adopted home of Nashville. In Music City, Madi and Kyle have been co-writing with the likes of Sarah Siskind, Katie Herzig, Garrison Starr and David Mead, and recording demos with Gary Paczosa (Alison Krauss), Marshall Altman (Matt Nathanson) and Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin). Producers Ian Fitchuck and Justin Loucks (Landon Pigg, De Novo Dahl, Griffin House) became fast friends and just as quickly collaborators, the first byproduct of which is Diaz and Ryan's new EP, Ten Gun Salute.