William Jefferson Garland (June 17, 1918 – March 16, 1960), was an American blues

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

, and

songwriter A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...

. Garland was famous for his

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentou ...

singing combined with gentle guitar playing style. Much of Garland's output was recorded from 1940 until 1950, including 1945's "Got Nothing on Me". Garland was born in

Flowood, Mississippi Flowood is a city in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 10,202 at the 2020 U.S. Census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area. History In 1950, a delegation from Flowood petitioned Governor Fielding ...

, and died in 1960 in a car accident in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. He is not the same Billy Garland (born

Mulberry, Arkansas Mulberry is a city in Crawford County, Arkansas, United States. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas- Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,655 as of the 2010 Census, an increase of % from 1,627 in 2000. __TOC__ Geogr ...

; who released a country music CD in 2002) and who was inducted into the

Rockabilly Hall of Fame The Rockabilly Hall of Fame is an organization and website launched on March 21, 1997, to present early rock and roll history and information relating to the artists and personalities involved in rockabilly. Headquartered in Nashville, Tennesse ...

References

1918 births 1960 deaths People from Flowood, Mississippi American blues guitarists Songwriters from Mississippi Road incident deaths in Illinois 20th-century American singers 20th-century American male singers American male songwriters {{US-guitarist-stub