Petra Haden is an exceedingly eclectic singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and composer. She is one of the triplet daughters of noted jazz bassist and composer Charlie Haden. She picked up the violin at age 7 and her fascination with its sounds and the sounds of other instruments led her to vocally recreate those sounds. In her teens, her father got her a four-track tape machine which she used to overdub multiple vocal tracks.

Her first big fame came from her work with 1990’s alternative rock band that dog. with her sister Rachel.

Her next big piece of notoriety came from her all a cappella album Petra Haden Sings; The Who Sell Out in which she recreated all vocal and instrumental parts of the original album solely with her voice. Pete Townshend in an interview said this about the effort:

I heard the music as if for the first time. I listened all the way through in one sitting, and was struck by how beautiful a lot of the music was. Petra’s approach is so tender and generous. I adore it.

Along with her own work, Petra has provided voice and violin efforts to a large number of other bands.

In 2014, Haden joined her sisters Rachel and Tanya to form the acclaimed The Haden Triplets.