WILLOW HALE has been playing guitar and singing folksongs since she was 13 years old in Gulfport, Mississippi.  She entered a talent contest at that time and won first place, singing BANKS OF THE OHIO.  She wrote her first song REDBIRD when she was 19 and from then on played her own songs as well as old folk, blues, jazz and some country in the Bay Area near San Francisco, including THE BOARDING HOUSE and FREIGHT AND SALVAGE in Berkeley.

In New York, WILLOW opened for DAVE VAN RONK at THE OTHER END (THE BITTER END), for the ORIGINAL DRIFTING COWBOYS (HANK WILLIAMS’ BAND) at THE LONE STAR, and JOHN FAHEY at FOLK CITY.  Playing and singing with jazz groups she also played and has live recordings at THE WEST BANK CAFÉ, THE WEST END, RENO SWEENEY'S, JP’S, TRAX and GREAT GUILDERSLEEVES. 

At 24 she was signed with WARNER/REPRISE RECORDS in London and in New York, she recorded with LITTLE SILVER RECORDS (Red Bank, New Jersey) covering EMMY LOU HARRIS’ hit HICKORY WIND (GRAM PARSONS) and her own songs HAMMER IN MY HEART and MAKE LOVE TO ME.  In 1982, her first song was published by DEVON PUBLISHING (THE RICHMOND ORGANIZATION) which was placed with EMMY LOU HARRIS and led to her long association with BMI and her own publishing company ALI MAC MUSIC.  WILLOW was asked by WILFORD LEACH AND JOSEPH PAPP, participated in, and was paid for a 10 minute musical called HUNGRY STREET, a rock and roll runners’ love story for the PUBLIC THEATRE.

In 1979 in New York, she recorded 13 songs which are now being released for the first time in a CD, A SIMPLE STRING OF WONDER.  She performs regularly in Southern California where she has been featured at BB KING'S BLUES CLUB in Universal City, CA, THE COFFEE GALLERY BACKSTAGE in Altadena, CA, BEAN TOWN ESPRESSO BAR in Sierra Madre, CA., THE RAINBOW BAR AND GRILL in West Hollywood, CA and TOTALLY COFFEE in Costa Mesa, CA.  WILLOW is grateful for life itself with all its beauty, for her friends who have carried her through the bad as well as the good times, for her guitar, her hearing and her seeing, and most of all for her faith in God who brings the gift.