We're delighted to introduce one of the most promising young artists we’ve had the good fortune to meet, the rock/blues/folk singer-songwriter Madi Diaz, who’s on Kauai with her band to record their debut album. The group will be giving two live public performances: 8PM Friday, January 5 at Small Town Coffee in Kapaa, and 7PM Saturday, January 6, at Church of the Pacific in Princeville. For more information, email us at info@steelgrass.org, or call (808) 821-1857.

Madi Diaz has been singing and playing for much of her young life, but her first national exposure came in the documentary film “Rock School”, where she takes the stage at a Frank Zappa Festival in Germany, belting out Zappa’s demanding vocals in a way that wows the audience and impresses even the composer’s own former band members. Since then, Madi has continued to develop her own material, performing up and down the East Coast, both solo and with her band, which features Zach Mangan on drums, Adam Popick on bass, and Kyle Hurlbut on lead guitar.

As music fans know, there’s nothing like seeing a group that you know is going to get famous fast. Madi’s creativity as a songwriter, her amazing musicianship, and the power she has to fuse rock, blues and folk styles all add up to a performer headed for great things. "I'm finally releasing the music I've been bottling up inside me for the past few years,” Madi says. “I spent last summer working at a bar and listening to a pretty eclectic list of players: Ryan Adams, Patty Griffin, The Beatles, Dolly Parton, Bryan White, Sigur Ros, Death Cab For Cutie, and Joanna Newsome, just to name a few. Then I started to write again, but this time from somewhere different. Now it’s really coming together with my new band. I found what I was looking for. Now when I’m playing I really feel like myself."

Madi and her band are on Kauai to track and mix her first album at our recording studio in Kapaa. Producers are Frank Charlton and Martin Cooke, the LA-based team known as Halftone Productions. For more information on Madi, visit www.madidiaz.com.