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Hank 'Sugarfoot' Garland is dead

ORANGE PARK, Fla., Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Guitarist Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland, who played with Elvis Presley, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, has died at an Orange Park, Fla., hospital.

Garland, who was 74, died Monday night of a staph infection, RollingStone.com reported Thursday.

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Born outside of Spartanburg, S.C., Garland began playing guitar at age 6, scoring his first hit, the instrumental "Sugarfoot Rag," at the age of 19.

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.

Fellow A-team guitarist Harold Bradley once said of Garland, "We haven't had another one come down the pike who plays the lines that he played. We've got some guys who play fast, but ...they don't have the feeling, the soul."

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