When Madi Diaz arrived at Boston's Berklee College of Music, teachers and students already knew her as "that girl from the movie." Within a few short months, she had become "that girl with the voice."

Raised in Pennsylvania Amish country by ultra-liberal parents (her father plays keyboards in a world-renown Zappa tribute band, and her mother sports a nose-ring), Diaz began writing songs at age 16, not long after the family left the Lancaster County countryside for Philadelphia. Her mother home-schooled Madi and her younger brother through high school, but always afforded her children the freedom to pursue their own passions.

Even so, Madi led a decidedly focused, self-disciplined childhood, waking up early each morning to complete her lessons and homework by lunchtime. In the afternoons, she rode horses and trained in equestrian events.   And at fourteen, she began attending the Paul Green School of Rock, an after-school music institute in Philadelphia (a 160-mile roundtrip commute) for nine to seventeen-year-olds.

Hungry for greater access to Philly's music scene, Madi's family relocated to the city in 2002. Her father, keyboardist Eric Svalgard (Project Object), began touring with a number of groups, and eventually opened his own music school in Delaware. Her brother, Max, began playing in rock bands. Madi, meanwhile, became a minor celebrity.

In the summer of 2005, Rock School , a documentary about the Paul Green School of Rock, opened nationwide. While the film exposed the school director's often bizarre teaching methods, it also showcased the talent of several promising young musicians, and featured Madi prominently.

An avid drawer (she designed much of the artwork for her debut CD), Diaz considered art school before deciding on Berklee. In Boston, she fronted the alternative rock band, Talk Radio, and then played solo acoustic shows when the group disbanded.

In the fall of 2006, music school began to pay off. Madi met producer Frank Charlton and recording engineer Martin Cooke, two wunderkinds of Berklee's famed Music Production and Engineering program. The three began preproduction on a full-length record, and Charlton recruited Berklee's most sought-after roots rock instrumentalists to play on the sessions. This formidable group of musicians would eventually become Madi's touring band.

Skin and Bone, Madi's début solo album, is filled with songs rich in precocious wisdom, unassuming poetry, and melodic sophistication. Without paying direct homage to a particular time or place, the record evokes the locations of Diaz's youth: the wide-open spaces of the Amish countryside, the unsettling thrills and daunting possibilities of Philly's urban jungle - and the longing and loneliness common to both.

Diaz's powerful voice, both uniquely engaging and steeped in rock tradition, calls to mind such icons of Americana as Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, and Patty Griffin. Madi Diaz has begun making her bones on the roots rock scene.