Hal Willner and the Creation of the Modern Tribute Album
Steven R Rosen, LA CityBeat, January 2004
"SORRY," Hal Willner says, sheepishly. He has just been complimented — or so this writer intended — for being the father of pop culture's rampant tributemania. One can draw a straight line from the imaginative multi-artist tribute albums that producer Willner essentially curated in the 1980s, especially for Kurt Weill and songs from Disney films, to current releases both sublime (Livin', Lovin', Losin': A Tribute to the Louvin Brothers) and bizarre (The String Tribute to Tool).
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