Hank Garland - Born in Cowpens, South Carolina, Garland began playing the guitar at the age of 6. He moved to Nashville at age 16 staying Ma Upchurch's boarding house where he roomed with upright bassist, Bob Moore and fiddler, Dale Potter. Garland quickly established himself as a hot commodity in the music business and at age 19 had a million-selling hit Sugar Foot Rag.

He is probably best known for his work on Elvis Presley recordings from 1958 to 1961 which produced such hits as Little Sister and Big Hunk of Love. Contemporary guitarists often site Hank Garland's stunning guitar work as their primary inspiration. A brilliant jazz theorist, his intricate chord structures, innovation styling and lighting-fast riffs are a delightful puzzle to the minds ear. His "Velvet Guitar" album is a mind-boggling, must have, work-book for aspiring jazz guitarists and his "Jazz Winds From a New Direction" a timeless classic. In the summer of 1961 a tragic car crash left him in a coma He awoke from the coma after several months but subsequent, barbaric, shock 'treatments' caused irreparable damage to his brain. Garland died on December 27, 2004 of a staph infection in Orange Park, Florida.