Volkaert is best known to country audiences as being the lead guitarist since 1997 for Merle Haggard's band the Strangers. Prior to that in the '90s, he had done sessions in Nashville for artists like Ray Price, Clinton Gregory, Dale Watson, and Lacy J. Dalton. In the late '90s, Volkaert also began a career as a solo artist with Telewacker. In 2001, No Stranger to a Tele followed, with a satisfyingly diverse mix of country swing, hot instrumentals with steel guitar, and vocal numbers in the Bakersfield-honky-tonk tradition. ~ Richie Unterberger