We’re still answering the ‘who is Petra Doe’ question. The answer is a long one. You’ve had the Doe, now for the Petra bit. As you can see from our blurb below, the last six months has been a bit of a Shah fest here at Ballad HQ, and we are awaiting her debut album with baited breath. Her voice is one, once heard will stay with you - haunting, gothic and sorrowful it sits right in the pit of your stomach and tugs at your most buried heart strings. Her voice and her words are the embodiment of Petra Doe.

A Nadine Shah/Paulina Otylie Surys collaboration for the cover was the most perfect concoction - we couldn’t have dreamt of better. Now whats in a name… As The Little Book of Horrors issue took shape, we knew she would be a Jane Doe - we knew she would be a collection of unnamed, unidentified sorrow-filled females - but we didn’t WANT her to be unnamed. We wanted to give our Jane Doe some grace. Nadine Doe didn’t have the same ring to it, but Ms. Shah’s middle name, Petra, was too perfect.

N.S’s yet untitled debut album is scheduled for release in early 2012, in the mean time you can let your heart leap at myspace.com/nadineshah and you can give her a LIKE here.

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