[Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Santa Cruz Guitars Company and Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings and the Santa Cruz Guitar PLEK Department.

And by Peluso Microphone Lab.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.

Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician.

Tonight's episode is recorded live from The Dr. Bruce James House.

Let's step inside and listen.

[Redd Volkaert] One, two, three.

["Old Fashion Love" instrumental music playing] ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Love in my heart ♪ ♪ There it will always remain ♪ ♪ Like an ivy-clinging vine ♪ ♪ That gets closer All the time ♪ ♪ Through the years ♪ ♪ Through the tears Just the same ♪ ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Faith in my heart ♪ ♪ And nothing Can tear it apart ♪ ♪ Dry land may change to sea ♪ ♪ You'll see no change in me ♪ ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Love in my heart ♪ [mellow guitar chords playing] ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Love in my heart ♪ ♪ There it will always remain ♪ ♪ Like an ivy-clinging vine ♪ ♪ That gets closer All the time ♪ ♪ Through the years ♪ ♪ Through the tears Just the same ♪ ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Faith in my heart ♪ ♪ And nothing Can tear it apart ♪ ♪ Dry land may change to sea ♪ ♪ You'll see no change in me ♪ ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Love in my heart ♪ ♪ I've got that old-fashioned Love in my heart ♪ -Awesome.

I think I hung in there with... -All right, awesome.

-Hello, and welcome to The Life of a Musician .

I'm your host, Brandon Lee Adams, and I'm very grateful for you joining us today with one of my absolute heroes.

Just an amazing, iconic... boy, I don't even know what else to put past that, Mr. Redd Volkaert.

-Well, you need to get out a little more, but that's all right.

Thank you for having me.

-Well, thanks for being here, man.

-Oh, my pleasure.

-Coming all the way from the great Galax.

-Yeah, it's only a couple hours.

-Only a couple hours, it's awesome.

When I found out you actually lived this close, I'm like, I'm just gonna pester this man... to the end of the world.

-Well, there wasn't a pester yet.

-[chuckles] Give me time.

Give me time, man.

-Yeah.

-So... man, I don't even know where to start.

I don't like to rehearse anything, and you know, I just shoot from the hip when I'm talking.

But there's like just, I'd just like to sit here and just pick your brain, you know.

But let me, let me get... -There ain't much left, I'll tell you that.

-Let me get just some stuff just out of the way for folks, you know, back home who maybe this is their first time listening to you or hearing about you or watching your... just your amazing technique.

Just give us a little background on you, Mr. Volkaert.

-Well, I was born in Vancouver, Canada, and I played up there and kind of in the west mainly.

And I got out to the middle east a few times out there, years ago in the '70s and, but I grew up playing there in bar bands, playing honky-tonk music in nightclubs and all of that.

And I moved to California in, around the middle '80s, thumped around down there for four years or so, and always wanted to go to Nashville because all the hero guitar guys that were on all my records, I'd learned stuff and stolen licks from on the records.

A bunch of those folks lived in Nashville, so I wanted to eventually go there and see those guys play and watch them play, and see if I was doing it right or even close.

And that was my goal.

I didn't care if I played or not.

I could always go back home and play.

So I end up, wound up staying down here.

And I was, well, stayed in California, four years.

Then I went to Nashville for 11 years and played down there and did all kinds of different things, demo sessions and lots of seven nights a week, two shifts a day, three shifts on the weekends.

There were-- there you can play a lot of the bars downtown.

Of course, they all run on the tip jar, so you only make what the tip jar gets.

So you take as many shifts as you can.

And I did 11 years down there of where you could play 11 to 2 as a single or a duo, and then 2 to 6 with a band, and then 6 to 10 with another band, and then 10 to 2 with another band.

So I had a regular 10 to 2 in Printers Alley for a long time.

And then, I played downtown at Robert's Western World was a club down there, it's still going.

And I played 6 to 10 there with the Don Kelley Band for quite a while.

And then, the morning shifts, I'd do duos with people, the 11 to 2 shift, and then a bunch of 2 to 6s at some of the other clubs.

And sometimes, it'd be four shifts a day.

But, so, I got a whole lot of playing in, a lot of hours of practicing and trying to correct my mistakes and clean up my mess and all of that, and learn from other guys and play with a lot of different people.

So I learned a whole lot while I was there.

And then, I left there, and I moved to Austin, Texas, for 20 years.

And did the same thing, play seven nights a week there, but not, you know, three or four shifts a day.

I could, I could play seven nights a week, doing a regular night thing in the clubs.

And then on the weekends, I could do other work where I would play like in a restaurant, lunch, happy hour things.

Lunchtime and the happy hours, or a wedding at night.

I had afternoon-- 20 years I was at the Continental Club on Saturday afternoons with my own band.

And it was always a four-piece band, and I just switched the fourth piece.

Every couple of years, they'd go somewhere down the road with somebody.

So I'd go from a steel to a fiddle player and then a piano player and a steel player, back and forth, but I always had my trio thing there.

For 20 years I did that.

On Saturdays and Sundays, I played with this other band called Heybale!

And it was a wonderful band as well, and 20 years there with that band.

And the guys in that band was Earl Poole Ball was Johnny Cash's piano player for 25 years.

And Kevin Smith was Willie Nelson's bass player.

He was there at the beginning.

And we went through a couple different steel players that died, and one went blind and had a stroke.

And just music, you know, you go through a bunch of different people like you do shirts, you know.

And so, I just, 20 years there, and so, doing that for that long and all of that, I just went, urgh, I'm tired of playing seven nights a week and doing that.

So I wanted to go somewhere where there was no country music, my kind of country music, doing, you know, Bakersfield thing and the Western swing thing.

So I had come out here, I'd been out here lots of years ago.

When I first moved to Nashville, I worked with a young fellow named Clinton Gregory who was a fiddle player, and he was from Leatherwood, little area out of Martinsville, I guess.

And so, we played a lot in Virginia back then.

And I remember thinking, yes, it's like Maine without the bad weather.

It's beautiful, you know.

Then I just kind of blew it off, and 30 years later, I'm living in Texas and burning up in the heat, 105 degrees for three months and no rain twice a year, and it's like, meh, I'm tired of that.

And living in cities, having to play, to work with music.

If you want to be in a road band and travel with anybody, or work every night, you have to be in a big enough center where that's available.

So, I'd always been doing that, from Los Angeles to Nashville to Austin.

And then, a bunch of stuff on the road with different people and all of that.

And I just kind of got burned out on the... working too much all the time and just never saying no to a phone call for work, you know.

So I decided, well, I'm going to find somewhere where there's none of what I do.

So I came out and I played the Wayne Henderson's Festival a few years ago.

And driving out there to Rugby, where he's at, it was at Grayson Highlands Park.

Beautiful, beautiful area.

And we would, my wife and I had been thinking of going to New Mexico to move, but they don't have any water there, and you don't have to cut the grass because it's all rock, you know, but...

So I kind of didn't want that because we got a bunch of animals, horses and donkeys and all kind of stuff, cows.

And so, I told my wife, man, this place is it.

It's got water.

Tons of springs popping up everywhere.

Makes everybody mad here, but we love it.

And, you know, lots of water and green grass and rains a bit, and fantastic winters.

So we took a trip.

We flew to Charlotte, rented a car, and we drove everywhere, North Carolina and Virginia.

And she picked Galax as the one she liked.

So I said, all right, so we moved there three years ago.

We moved just in time for COVID.

-You're one of those folks that you've got your own sound.

You know, when I listen to, you know, just some Merle or I listen to just, you know, some of that Tele-picking, it's like, that's Redd.

That's Redd.

That's either Redd or that is somebody who really, really, really liked Redd's playing.

So when-- where do you think, or can you kind of put just a pinpoint on how it is that you got your sound or your, you know... -Well, I think it's like everybody else.

It's a sum of whoever we've listened to as we're learning and coming up playing music, you know.

You're, you know, when you're a kid, you listen to your favorite stuff, and if you happen to pick up the guitar, you try and emulate that stuff and copy it, that sound, and, you know, it's no different than a kid sitting in his bedroom singing into a hairbrush and ended up being Mick Jagger.

I mean, it happens.

-Yeah.

-So I think it's the same with the guitars.

Whatever records you have, you-- you know, if you like Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed and James Burton and Roy Nichols and, you know, you start listening to that stuff a lot and trying to play it on the guitar, I think a little bit of osmosis takes over, too, sometimes.

And just hearing those sounds and being so familiar with certain sound, then you-- it's easier to emulate that and get into that style.

Whereas if you didn't know anything about it and you heard it and you went, oh, I like it.

It's nice.

Now what, you know?

How many hours you sit and you go... [plays chords] Oops.

How many hours you sit and do that before you can go... [plays chords] You know?

So there's a Merle Travis lick, you know, so that's one piece from this guy.

One piece from that guy.

So I've been kind of a stalker of all the good players to me, that I like.

Ooh, banged my mic, I guess, of all the good players that I like, and... -There's a tune, that Haggard tune that you want to do.

I know we were talking about, you know, songs, and do you want to play that one a little bit and sing it.

By the way, I'm actually loving your voice, man.

I didn't realize you sang as much as you did.

-If I can get out of it, I will.

I'd rather play any day.

That's a lot more fun than singing.

-I don't know all the words to it, but tell us a little bit about the tune.

And I think you want to start on the 5 on this one.

-Uh... which one do you want to do?

-"Little Ole Wine Drinker Me"?

-Oh, that's... -Yeah.

It starts on the 5?

-No, start on the 1, 1-5-1 on that.

-1-5-1, okay.

-That's a, actually, I found out it's an old Dean Martin song.

I don't know who wrote the thing, but Dean Martin had a big hit with it in the '60s or early '60s, and then Merle recorded it.

And I don't know how much of a hit it was, but when I was a kid, I saw him doing it on the Del Reeves' TV Show.

-Okay.

-And Roy Nichols played the solo in it, and I was just like, oh, that's what I want to do, you know, as a kid.

So anyway, this is that song.

-Give it a shot.

A, right?

-Yeah.

Key a D. -D?

-Start on the A.

Start on the-- no, start on the D. D, then A, then D. -Okay.

I thought we were there.

-Or... -I was just telling the folks back home, I'm nervous as all get out.

This is Redd Volkaert right here, y'all.

We're starting to play this in D. ["Little Ole Wine Drinker Me" instrumental music playing] ♪ They're praying for rain In California ♪ ♪ So the grapes can grow And they can make more wine ♪ ♪ I'm sitting In a honky in Chicago ♪ ♪ With a broken heart And a woman on my mind ♪ ♪ I matched the man Behind the bar ♪ ♪ For the jukebox ♪ ♪ And the music takes me Back to Tennessee ♪ ♪ And they asked who's the fool In the corner crying ♪ ♪ I say a little ole Wine drinker me ♪ [guitar chords playing] -That's pretty nice.

-♪ I came up here last week From down in Nashville ♪ ♪ 'Cause my baby left For Florida on a train ♪ ♪ I got a job And tried to just forget her ♪ ♪ But in Chicago, the broken Heartache's still the same ♪ ♪ I matched the man Behind the bar ♪ ♪ For the jukebox ♪ ♪ And the music takes me Back to Tennessee ♪ ♪ And when they ask who's The fool in the corner crying ♪ ♪ A little ole Wine drinker me ♪ ♪ And when they ask who's The fool in the corner crying ♪ ♪ A little ole wine drinker me ♪ -That's a pretty last note there.

Let me steal that.

-Six, nine.

-How're you playing that?

-Well, you play the A with it.

Follow with a D chord.

-That's pretty, I like that.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-That works with it as well as a D chord.

-Okay.

This is a full-service TV show.

-That's right.

-Full-service TV show.

-What not to do.

-Well, now, that'd be watching me.

-I don't think.

-I tell you what.

This has just been just a true ball, man.

I mean, this... that's a dream come true for me, getting to hang out with you for a few hours.

Just literally, I've been looking forward to this.

I've been looking at my calendar and, like, okay, Redd's here in six weeks.

Redd's here in five weeks.

Have you listened to the songs?

-Four more sleeps.

-Four more sleeps, and then there's Redd.

But, man, that's just... -Well, thanks for having me.

Nice to be had.

-Yeah.

I mean, one thing that is just blowing me away is, you're one of those dudes, I mean, you have paid your dues and then everybody else's dues along the way and put the work in, you know?

Is it--?

-Yeah, I love music, I love playing.

And I've, you know, always been the kind of guy, I think, why stay home and watch TV when you could be playing in a band and learning how to play and get better and... why not?

So that's why I worked as much as I have, because I just love to do it.

You know, the business side of it is not so glorious or fun or nice or whatever, but sometimes, you know, sometimes it's great.

-Well, the more zeros behind the check, the more fun it becomes.

-Well, sometimes some of them pay great, but then some ain't fun, you know, that's like anything.

It's good and bad with all of it, you know.

-What you got there, Redd?

-Oh, this old thing?

-Yeah.

-This is a 1938 Martin D-18 guitar that I got that used to belong to a fellow named Slim Dossey, who was a country singer.

I think he was from the Oregon area, but he had a pretty popular career in California from the middle '40s till the late '50s, I guess.

And this was one of his guitars.

He had this and a D-28, and I swindled his daughter out of this one.

-Oh, Lord.

-And I'm glad I did.

It's just a wonderful guitar.

-It's a 1938-- -I don't deserve it, but, man, it's fun to play, and it sounds great.

And between these two, I got it all.

-You're covered.

I mean, I'm sitting back there looking at the Telly, and it's like, I can't believe all the people... -Oh, the old home wrecker over there, yeah.

-Yeah.

-All the, all of the amazing history that's just been-- -That's the normal thing, is playing that thing, not these, really, you know.

-You're killing it, man.

I mean, you're killing it.

If anybody back home didn't know, now you know Redd can pick a flat top, y'all.

-Well, I don't know about that, but... -Thank you so much for joining us, Redd, once again, and thank you back home.

We're going to send you out with "She's Gone, Gone, Gone" and please stay tuned and catch all the episodes of The Life of a Musician that are upcoming.

Be well, and God bless.

-One, two, three... ["She's Gone, Gone, Gone" instrumental music playing] ♪ She said If I ever deceived her ♪ ♪ She'd be gone Before I could count ten ♪ ♪ I guess that I didn't believe her ♪ ♪ 'Cause look at The trouble I'm in ♪ ♪ She's gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Cryin' won't bring her back ♪ ♪ The more that I cry ♪ ♪ The faster that train flies ♪ ♪ Farther on down the track ♪ ♪ I'd lost every right To be happy ♪ ♪ When I lost the heaven That I found ♪ ♪ She warned me she'd leave And she left me ♪ ♪ Before my first tear Hit the ground ♪ ♪ She's gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Cryin' won't bring her back ♪ ♪ The more that I cry ♪ ♪ The faster that train flies ♪ ♪ Farther on down the track ♪ Take the cup.

[fast-paced chords playing] Yeah.

Go on, yeah!

[♪♪♪] ♪ I only wish I could find her ♪ ♪ I'd crawl there On my hands and knees ♪ ♪ Each tick of the clock's A reminder ♪ ♪ She's one second farther From me ♪ ♪ She's gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Cryin' won't bring her back ♪ ♪ The more that I cry ♪ ♪ The faster that train flies ♪ ♪ Farther on down the track ♪ [melodious chords playing] -Get it, man!

[melodious chords playing] ♪ She's gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Cryin' won't bring her back ♪ ♪ The more that I cry ♪ ♪ The faster that train flies ♪ ♪ Farther on down the track ♪ ♪ Farther on down the track ♪ ♪ Farther on down the track ♪ [Announcer] Thank you for being a part of our show.

We look forward to seeing you on the next episode of The Life of a Musician.

-♪ She said if I ever deceived her ♪ ♪ She'd be gone before I could count ten ♪ ♪ I guess that I didn't believe her ♪ ♪ 'Cause look at the trouble I'm in ♪ ♪ She's gone gone gone ♪ ♪ Gone, gone, gone ♪ ♪ Cryin' won't... ♪ [Announcer] This program is brought to you in part by Santa Cruz Guitars Company and Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension Strings.

And the Santa Cruz Guitar PLEK Department.

And by Peluso Microphone Lab.

Additional support provided by these sponsors.