Hank Garland ~ The Smokin' 45's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNuktN0IRaw
During Christmas Holiday's how many of you have heard the songs "Jingle Bell Rock" or "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" ? If you have then you were listening to the Guitarist Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland. Hank Garland was known for his unique styles of Guitar work on thousands of #1 hit recording's enjoyed through out the world today ! The Legendary Guitarist Hank Garland played guitar for Elvis Prelsey, Roy Orbsion, Patsy Cline, Hank Williams, The Everly Brothers, Eddy Arnold, Patti Page, Brenda Lee, and 1,000's of other Artist creating some of the greatest American Music in the History of Anerican Music.Hank Garland also designed the Gibson Byrdland Guitar ! Hank Garland's "Jingle Bell Rock" & "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" can fill up your Christmas Holiday Spirit and these songs live on in our hearts & souls forever.
I would like to introduce to you "The Smokin' 45's" with Dusty Ciggaar on Guitar. They are our dear Friends from The Netherlands. The Smokin' 45's recorded "Hank's Dream" an instrumental that Hank Garland wrote and this song was passed down from their parents. That goes to show that the music Hank Garland created in the beginning still lives. Hank Garland had a God Given Talent and Hank Garland was very aware that his talent was Given to him By God. Hank Garland had strong Christian background and could draw a crowd at age 6 with his Encore Guitar raised in Clifton, SC becomming what is known as The Nashville Sound. To Guitarist he is also known as The Nashville Cats ! You will hear his signature song "Sugarfoot Rag" opeing the Grand Ole' Opry where he opened for Cowboy Copas, Eddy Arnold, Hank Williams. Paul Howard Band just to name a few at the age of 14.
The Smokin' 45's did not know us until we found them on You Tube which is an excellent way to pass on this great music that lives on through generations of family members. Not only did Guitarist Dusty Ciggar take on the "Spirit" of The Legendary Guitarist Hank Garland at age 19 years old he is one of our favorite guitar players as they have respect for American Music and the History of Great American Music.Listen to their music. They have accomplished some great music already. You can vist us on My Space or Face Book. I have shared their video of "Hank's Dream" and we have asked them to record Hank Garland's Signature Song "Sugarfoot Rag" ! "Sugarfoot Rag" has been the opening song for The Grand Ole' Opry since The Beginning ! Show your support and Our American Spirit by thanking the "Smokin' 45's "for carrying on our American Music Heritage. Have a Wonderful Merry Christmas !
The Legendary Guitarist Hank Garland Family

Hank Garland "Sugarfoot Rag"

Today’s music video is ‘Sugarfoot Rag’ from Hank Garland.

I’m willing to bet that not one reader will have heard of Hank Garland, but every one of you will have heard his playing.
Hank was a session guitarist throughout the 50’s and up until his near fatal car crash in 1961.
He started playing guitar when he was 6 and made his first appearance at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville when he was only 16 in the late 40’s, and was an immediate sensation. From that point he was in demand as a session guitarist for all the top acts of the time.
He started out in the Country field playing in nearly all the big names recording sessions in the 50’s, Marty Robbins, Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, Brenda Lee, Eddy Arnold, and many others. He was in on the ground floor of the early days as rock and roll started to fire up. He backed smooth artists like Roy Orbison, The Everly Brothers, and Elvis Presley, in the early stages of his career, specifically asked that Hank be the guitarist for all his recording sessions.
He was renowned as an absolute perfectionist, and that got him into difficulties with the record production companies in Nashville, who wanted to pump out as much record product that they could in as short a time as possible, and Hank’s calls for perfection did not go down well with what became known in a friendly manner as ‘The Nashville Mafia’. He was also instrumental in composers and arrangers being given extra credit, instead of just being credited as musicians who played on the actual recording, and also being paid the extra as well.
He was also enamoured with the new form of Jazz that started to come out of the Northeast, and his friendship with some of the black musicians was also not very well received. His forays into jazz left us with one of the best Jazz recordings of all time, Hank’s ‘Jazz Winds From A New Direction’ recorded just before his auto accident. That accident left him in a coma, close to death, for a week, and after months of recovery, therapy and convalescence, he never did recover his previous brilliance.
A special request from one of the World’s leading guitar manufacturers Gibson, led to a special guitar being manufactured. They asked Hank Garland and his friend and fellow guitarist Billy Byrd to design the guitar. It had a slimline and fuller body than most electric guitars, and in their honour Gibson named it the ‘ByrdLand’ guitar and it was first manufactured in 1955, becoming a popular guitar at the time, and still in production into the mid 90’s. A good 1955 Byrdland will fetch around $12,000 today.
As a session guitarist, and not being a singer, there was little chance for him to make a name as a solo artist. However, the song featured today is his biggest hit, and the signature tune we remember from Hank. The tune you hear him playing here started out life as his own way of ‘warming up’ prior to a session, an exercise to get his left hand fretboard fingers going. What you see here is a series of very difficult progressions up and down the fretboard, and in the middle of the tune, he inserts a progression of harmonics, giving the guitar that different sound as from the purer notes being played. The speed with which he moves is amazing, and Garland is often pointed at as being the forerunner of today’s great guitarists, and the challenge they have is to actually be able to play this piece of music.
So, even though Hank Garland may not be a well known name, his legacy lives on every time you hear one of those great modern guitarists, and a vast majority of those monster hits from the 50’s.
Sadly, Hank is no longer with us, passing away in 2004 at the age of 74.
This video posted to You Tube by RockinGator.Posted in America (USA), History, Video Tagged: Country Music, Gibson Guitars, Hank Garland, Music Video