Petra Haden Sings King Crimson

It started with a gift and a request from Mike Watt. He and his late Minutemen bandmate D. Boon had shared a favorite album, The Who Sell Out, and he was wondering what it would be like to hear it in a totally different context. Petra Haden had constructed an a cappella wonder with her 1996 solo debut, Imaginaryland, using a four-track from her father, Charlie, to cover Bach, Enya, and Charlie, too. Could, Watt wondered, she try it with The Who? Watt put the entire album on the eighth track of the tape machine he lent her; she would call to play him a new track over the phone every time she finished one. It was just an entertaining exchange, Haden thought, until Watt encouraged her to release it. Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out, though, became something of a little hit, since its vivid reimagining through her versatile voice felt so fun and free.

In the last two decades, Haden’s a cappella covers have become a sort of online catnip. She’s done Journey and Radiohead, Bowie and Zeppelin, using GarageBand to capture a dizzying array of sounds, from the electronic ghosts of “Idioteque” to the loping bass of “Let ‘Em In.” The songs of King Crimson have been an ongoing concern. In recent years, she has made records with John Zorn and Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson and collaborated with the likes of Rufus Wainwright and Jesse Harris. But in free time, she’s made “The Sheltering Sky” feel more massive and turned “Red” into a choral arrangement that pulls Steve Reich deeper into Robert Fripp’s world. She’s even collaborated with Tony Levin on a rendition of “Frame by Frame.” After teasing an album of her Crimson interpretations for years, Haden will release Crimson Sing in the spring of 2027, just in time for Big Ears.