North Florida Music Hall of Fame

Nashville-based guitar virtuoso and session player. Recorded million-selling “Sugar Foot Rag” in 1949, later performed on sessions with Elvis Presley (1958-1961), Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, Everly Brothers, Boots Randolph, Roy Orbison, Conway Twitty, and Hank Williams. Garland had been a jazz player and had brought a serious jazz sensibility to country guitar (as exemplified on Cline’s “Crazy”). He also co-wrote Christmas perennial “Jingle Bell Rock,” recorded by Bobby Helms and Brenda Lee. A 1961 auto accident put Garland in a coma and ended his career. He went to live with his brother in Orange Park and died in a local nursing home in 2004. His story is the subject of the 2008 independent film Crazy.