THE RISING STORM

Hank “Sugarfoot” Garland always wanted nothing more than to be a jazz guitarist, like his idol Tal Farlow. Instead he became a respected session axeman for the burgeoning late 1950s Nashville country-pop music factory under Chet Atkins’s velvet fist. You’ve all heard Hank; his guitar is all over those hits that Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, and Patsy Cline waxed from 1958 to 1961. And guitar buffs will know that Hank was one half of the design team of the premium thin-bodied Gibson archtop, the Byrdland, with fellow sessioneer Billy Byrd.

Much earlier, however, a teenage Garland had been recruited by Decca staff producer Paul Cohen in 1949 as a potential hitmaking guitar-playing country singer. He did have an unsophisticated but engaging voice, when he wasn’t trying to be Floyd Tillman. However, it’s mainly for his astonishing chops as an electric flatpicker that we remember him today. Having heard Garland’s self-penned “Sugarfoot Boogie,” from which he took his “Sugarfoot” moniker, Cohen recorded Hank on a short series of stunning instrumental singles between 1949 and 1951, all of which stiffed chartwise. In an attempt to improve his chances, he was encouraged to resume vocalising, but without success. He was dropped by Decca at the end of 1951 and moved into touring band work, and thence into sessions.

Garland never released an album as a soloist during his Decca period; this reissue collection of 20 individual tracks is courtesy of Bear Family Records of Germany. Nor did he actually lead a band called the Sugar Footers, though the personnel on almost all his sessions included regular members Owen Bradley on piano or Hammond, Ernie Newton on bass, and Jack Shook on rhythm guitar. Their products, both instrumental and vocal, are scintillating. On the 1951 track “E-String Rag,” Hank’s relaxed vocal fronts a fine Western Swing number, his sparkling guitar breaks backed up by brief interjections from the other sessioneers. “Guitar Shuffle”, a 1950 cover of Arthur Smith’s “Guitar Boogie” with added vocal, mostly constrains Garland’s playing to the darker recesses of “farmer’s corner” but boasts a killer beat (forget Jackie Brenston: rock’n’roll starts here, folks) and a gorgeous break from C6 lapsteelist Bob Foster. And on the strangely unissued single Garland recorded for Chic on a brief session in 1957, “Baby Guitar”, he lets fly with a full, awesome flatpicking technique. When you hear Albert Lee or John Jorgensen in full flight, bear in mind that Hank Garland did this on a big-bodied semi-acoustic through a small, reverb-less tube amp, and without the benefit of vari-speed overdubbing like Les Paul.

It would be nice to think that Hank Garland’s ambition came true. Like many other Nashville regulars, he would gather after-hours to play jazz sessions in the city’s bars. In 1960 Hank finally recorded an acclaimed LP on Columbia, “Jazz Winds From A New Direction”, with a trio including Gary Burton on vibes. But less than a year later he was involved in a horrendous road accident, and after several months in a coma he recovered to find that he had lost his coordination and much of his memory. Hank Garland never played another session.

“E-String Rag”

CD Reissue | 1994 | Bear Family | buy from bear | amazon ]
Orignal Vinyl | Hank Garland | ebay search ]