Mmm. Might want to check that. Debi, his daughter may want to straighten you out on that and other lies Billy perpetrated. But I certainly won't argue that Hank was the best.

Have enough people collectively gotten together and ever questioned why this seems to be all too prevalent a common theme?

YES! HANK THE KING OF JAZZ AND THE L5/BYRDLAND!

I knew Hank's brother Billy when I lived in Florida. I lived minutes away from him. He had a million 'Hank' stories. Hank was the coolest guitar picker period!

A terrific player, no doubt. But the greatest ever? There ain't no such thing, regardless of which instrument you want to point to. The number of terrific guitar players has to at least 500, probably far more than that, and their respective playing fields were different than the others, which makes labeling any one of them "the best ever" impossible.

​@@demef758 Art is a progression from one generation to the next, or at least it's supposed to be...we're at least 10 years too late for the next innovation and technology actually isn't helping this time, it's just being used as a crutch to substitute production fluff for genuine talent

Yessir... one the best ever.

Idk if you’d believe this but he’s actually my uncle and before he passed he was able to play and it started to sound like the good old days before he was almost murdered in that “accidental” car accident

Your uncle was a great genius. I assume he was also a very sweet and kind gentleman.@@caseylauren7131

Friend of and influence on Toy Caldwell.

"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"!!!

Hank is also the lead guitarist on 'Jingle Bell Rock' by Bobby Helms - another great Christmas song!

0:52 what's the song called?

and Vancouver also Ottawa....was scheduled Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal but Catholic chuch cancelled Montreal date....TOR was only time he wore full gold suit

+David Smith ..Yngwie Malmsteen...named it...

He should have left Nashville and moved to New York and focused 100% on jazz. Sad about that car accident. Hank's brother claimed it was an attempted murder, that certain people within the Nashville music scene wanted him dead.

Tysons Accosta they did because he refused to stop going to printers alley in Nashville and stop picking with the African American blues players.He loved the blues and refused to be pushed around by big wigs in Nashville. I've researched Hank and found to only be distant cousins but it was because of him I have made trips to Nashville to see what few belongings of his there is on exhibit.

David, I believe you. No one...and I mean NO ONE..... should have been telling Hank what to do, who to play with or what to record. Hell, Crazy Joe Benjamin played acoustic bass on that LP he did with Joe Morello and Gary Burton. I realize hindsight in always 20/20, but I reiterate what I earlier posted...Hank should have moved to New York and immersed himself in the jazz scene. He would have had no problem in finding work. I think the jazz musicians would have embraced Hank as he would have been appreciated for the genius that he was.

@@davidgarland4083 Did you talk to Debi, Hank's daughter? She has different views than Billy of the actual history.

So true. The art of phrasing and melody seems to be lost on a lot of these people. Ten million notes a minute is not a guitar style it's just an annoying noise after a while.

The silence between the notes and accenting particular notes is more important than speed. Think of Grady Martin playing on El Paso-exquisite styling and timing.

I've been trying to figure out what he was playing at 0:40. It's a Gibson, looks like and ES-175 but doesn't have the pointy cutaway they usually do. Of course, if I get the same guitar I'll sound and play just like Hank Garland...

@@monto39 That's a Gibson Byrdland that Hank co-designed with Billie Byrd. (Byrd-Land) It has an L5 neck, a thinner body than an L5 and ES-175, and is slightly smaller scale at 23 1/2" I believe. The early Byrdlands (as Hank designed them) had a Charlie Christian pickup at the neck and a P-90 single coil at the bridge, for that twangier country sound. The thinner body helped prevent feedback and the shorter scale made it easier to play with the frets just a smidge bit closer to each other. Also shorter scale length necks mean that the string has lower tension; the longer scale lengths require higher tension to achieve the same pitch (A440 tuning), so shorter scale length necks are easier to bend the strings on. (The way they compensate for this on longer scale length necks is to use thinner gauge strings to make up for the ease in string bending.)

Don't Blame Me.

That's how Hank designed the guitar for Gibson, along with Billie Byrd (Byrd-Land), and with a P-90 at the bridge. They didn't switch to Humbuckers on the Byrdland until those new double-coil pickups were developed, years later.

My question was is that Grady Martin sitting next to Hank Garland? Two of the best right there.

The first time I watched I missed it. Grady playing a DOUBLE-NECK!! He's the first player I've seen to play one. He was famous for his Paul Bigsby double-neck.

@Mr. Mattis I would have to agree with you. Hank playing the lead up the neck while Grady is playing rhythm lower on the neck.

I gotta agree with Sir Winston on who's soloing. You can distinctly tell during Hank's double-stops. BUT, did you notice Grady's Paul Bigsby DOUBLE-NECK guitar??

No rock guitarist could ever be this good. Whole different depth of musicality.

He designed the Gibson Byrdland. Him and Billie Byrd, hence Byrd-Land.