Music Performance at the Event Tent: Ricky Cox and Willard Gayheart

Willard Gayheart is a fine guitar player, singer, recording artist, and songwriter who grew up in Cordia, Kentucky. When he was twelve, it took him a year to earn the $3.00 necessary to buy his first guitar. After he and his wife moved to Galax in 1962, he dove into the southwestern Virginia music scene. James Lindsey and the Mountain Ramblers was the first band he joined. He has also been a founding member of the Highlanders, Skeeter and the Skidmarks, and Alternate Roots.

Indian Valley’s Ricky Cox has been entertaining and educating many of us for decades. Throughout his teaching career at Radford University he shared the history and culture of our region through his music and writing, earning a number of special recognitions along the way. Ricky contributed his photographic talents to the second of two books featuring Willard Gayheart’s drawings.

Ricky’s friendship with Willard Gayheart also goes back thirty-five years. This shows in the programs they present together, harmonizing and appreciating one another’s contributions as they delight their audiences.