An iconic country guitarist moved to Virginia and plays weekly shows in a 500-person mountain town
Words By Eric Wallace
If you stroll through the Blue Ridge Mountain community of Floyd, Virginia’s historic downtown area, on a weekend evening during warm months, you may be surprised to hear the twangy pluck, bend, and wail of a Telecaster—pedal steel and backing band chugging through train-rhythm Western swing tunes. Follow the sound to a turn-of-the-century, Appalachian-style stick building. With massive lead glass windows, the building’s old double door opens onto a scene that feels like a cross between the Andy Griffith Show and Nashville’s Lower Broadway district.
To one side is an old-time soda fountain and general store area replete with barrels of hard candy, shelves of homemade baked goods, an acoustic music shop, and an antique cash register. To the other is a crowded dance floor filled with a mix of middle-agers in upscale outdoor apparel, kids, young people in tie-dyed shirts, and elderly couples decked out in Western wear. They spin and whorl before a small, raised wooden stage that looks like a front porch—where legendary honkytonk guitarist Redd Volkaert baritones through a rendition of the Bob Wills classic, “Bubbles In My Beer.”
This is the regionally famous Floyd Country Store. And the scene repeats almost weekly since Volkaert shocked the country music world with a surprise 2020 move to the rural Virginia mountains.
The 66-year-old Grammy winner and former Nashville staple had lived in Austin, Texas, for two decades. He’d made his name playing with superstars like Dolly Parton, George Jones, Dwight Yoakam, Johnny Paycheck, and Vince Gill—then touring as Merle Haggard’s lead axman throughout the late 1990s and aughts. A tasteful but virtuosic mix of old-school chicken-pickin, manouche jazz, blues bends, hard rock-inspired pinch harmonics—and oh so much more—won Volkaert a reputation as the reigning heavyweight guitar champ of the Live Music Capital of the World.
“Redd was to Austin what Aaron Neville was to New Orleans,” says Kyle Coroneos, longtime Austin resident and editor at savingcountrymusic.com. “He put on the best show in town, and you never knew who might show up.”
Patrons were routinely treated to appearances from six-string and vocalist royalty like Eric Johnson, Brad Paisley, Billy Gibbons, Ray Benson, Lyle Lovett, and Alison Krauss.
“Redd is one of my biggest heroes,” Paisley told Vintage Guitar Magazine in a 2005 interview. “There’s something about the attitude he has when you see him play live—you can’t believe the combination of [styles] he infuses into his playing.”
A tasteful but virtuosic mix of old-school chicken-pickin, manouche jazz, blues bends, hard rock-inspired pinch harmonics—and oh so much more—won Volkaert a reputation as the reigning heavyweight guitar champ of the Live Music Capital of the World.
Volkaert has brought that energy to his unlikely residency at the Floyd Country Store, which sits about 5 miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The two-hour “Honkytonk Thursday” events take place when he isn’t touring with groups like the Western Flyers or Bill Kirchen & The TwangBangers. They center around a core trio and often boast sit-ins by local and national stars like flat-picker Dan Tyminski, fiddler Michael Cleveland, and mandolinist Sam Bush.
“I fell in love with this area while passing through on an early-90s tour and thought I’d like to come here, stare at the mountains, and spend more time with my wife and our horses and miniature donkeys,” says Volkaert. “But it turns out I’m too nuts about the guitar for retirement. So I thought, heck, why not have a little fun close to home.”
And that’s a boon for locals and visitors alike. They can catch a world-class artist perform in one of the South’s most unique and intimate mountain venues—for free.
Stay and Soak Up the Vibes
Take your rest a mile from downtown in the beautifully overhauled Historic Epperly Mill, which sits on the forested banks of scenic Dodd Creek and dates back to 1901. Don’t let the rustic, wood-sided exterior fool you. The building holds a pair of spacious luxury suites that blend touches such as original exposed beam rafters and mill machinery with granite-lined kitchenettes and glass walk-in showers.
Head to the award-winning Chateau Morrisette Winery and enjoy a vino-tasting on a stone terrace with sweeping 3,500-foot views of the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains.
Follow with a visit to the internationally renowned, 41-acre Spikenard Farm Honeybee Sanctuary. Tour beautifully landscaped fruit orchards and pollinator and veggie gardens while learning about cutting-edge biodynamic beekeeping methods.
Round things out with dinner and drinks at speakeasy-themed Lush Lounge. There you’ll get seriously good craft cocktails, beer, and Virginia wines coupled with creative pub fare like bourbon-braised pork shank with pimento grits and apple compote.
