Legendary Guitarist Hank Garland dead at 74

ORANGE PARK, FL. (Top40 Charts) - 74-year-old legendary country music guitarist Hank Garland, who played recordings by Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison, has died of a staph infection Monday night at a hospital in Orange Park, Florida.
He rose to fame as a country star, playing for Paul Howard, Cowboy Copas & Eddy Arnold, and he recorded with ROY ORBISON, the EVERLY BROTHERS and Elvis.

Innovative Hank Garland, born outside of Spartanburg, South Carolina, began playing guitar at age six, scoring his first hit, the instrumental "Sugarfoot Rag," at nineteen. A member of a select group of Nashville session musicians known as the "A-team," he also recorded a jazz album, Jazz Winds From a New Direction, and jammed with Charlie Parker and pianist George Shearing. Garland also appeared in Presley's 1961 Farewell Concert filmed in Honolulu.
His career was cut short in the early 1960s when he was involved in a car accident, which robbed him of many of his skills.

Garland spent the final years of his life fighting ill health, trying to pry royalties out of record companies and talking with Hollywood about a movie based on his life.

Garland started playing guitar at age 6 and appeared on radio shows at age 12. He was discovered at the age of 14 at a South Carolina music store where he had gone to buy a guitar string.