As a youngster in Vancouver, British Columbia, Volkaert learned to play guitar from his dad. By the time he was 16 he was playing in local bars and clubs in Vancouver. After an 8-year stint in Alberta he left the great north woods for Los Angeles, playing clubs, teaching guitar, and working on demo sessions. Moving to Nashville in 1990, he began doing studio session work and road dates with artists like Ray Price, Lacy J. Dalton, Clinton Gregory, and Dale Watson, eventually winding up in Merle Haggard's band, The Strangers. Last year Redd moved to Austin, Texas, and has quickly become a participant in its thriving live-music scene."

Fender News writes:
If you’re unfamiliar with the incredible Redd Volkaert, either of two DVDs released this year would make a fine introduction to his world of Tele-slingin’ honky-tonkin’ good times. Live in Austin features a performance at the Continental Club in Volkaert’s adopted Texas home city; Stolen Licks is an instructional DVD with a dozen licks ripe for the picking. Either fantastic disc (or both, better yet) will have you seeing Redd in no time.

Probably best known as the most Roy Nichols-like successor to the great Roy Nichols in Merle Haggard’s famous backup band, the Strangers, Canada native Volkaert had no difficultly establishing his place among the country’s top Telecaster guitar slingers, and you’d have no trouble finding plenty of people who consider him the best guitar player in Austin today (check out Haggard’s 1999 Live At Billy Bob’s Texas to hear a great example of Volkaert’s work as a Stranger).

However, to call Volkaert a mere Nichols-like Stranger would be selling short his seemingly effortless ability to conjure up at will a vast array of complex guitar styles and techniques in countless genres and subgenres of country, rock, jazz, swing, surf, etc. Unlike many “jack of all trades, master of none” types, Volkaert (a 2004 Grammy nominee for best country instrumental performance) has indeed mastered the many guitar styles he plays in.