I'm sitting here trying to write just a little something about Hal Willner and my mind is, well, not blank, but more like congested. It's just really hard (at least for me) to do proper justice to the musical force that is Hal Willner. I'll just say he's a producer who's been involved with innumerable interesting projects with an incredible number of performers and I'll let a New York Times feature on him from last year do the rest. As for the compilation below, I took a cut from each of the fifteen musical projects he produced including a track from the out of print soundtrack to Short Cuts. All of the stuff he's worked on has its charms - if I had to recommend one, though, I'd go with Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs & Chanteys.
| The Traitor | Martha Wainwright |
| As Long As I Live | Shannon McNally |
| Sango Montamaria | Hal Willner |
| The Great Hall | Henry Threadgill |
| Leaving Of Liverpool | Shane MacGowan |
| Lowlands Low | Bryan Ferry & Antony |
| Ulalume | Jeff Buckley |
| Monk's Mood | Sharon Freeman |
| Sugar Baby | Kate & Anna McGarrigle |
| Juliet Of The Spirits | Bill Frisell |
| Heigh Ho | Tom Waits |
| Jump Monk | Don Alias/Michael Blair/Art Baron/Bill Frisell/Gary Lucas/Greg Cohen |
| Warning To Young Couples | William S. Burroughs |
| Evil California (These Blues) | Annie Ross & The Low Note Quintet With Iggy Pop &Anthony Coleman |
| Lonely House from Street Scene | Betty Carter |
