Born in Phoenixville, PA. His interest and schooling in music began when he was a child, and continued throughout his formal education. He majored in Music at the University of Pennsylvania, but left after two years. He moved to Tucson, AZ, around 1937, spent a few years working on a friend's ranch, and began to write some simple folk songs. With WW II's arrival, he went into the armed forces. After a stint in the Army's cavalry he spent the rest of his military time in the Army Air Corps until his discharge in December, 1945. Like many a son of the times, he returned home to Pennsylvania and took over his father's insurance business, expanding it to include some real estate interests. None of these interests would hold him long in Pennsylvania. After only two years, his dream of a career in music became too vivid and in 1947 he packed his bags and, with his new bride, headed to California hoping to promote his songs and start a career as a folk singer. His first major song hit was in 1950 when his original song "The Cry of the Wild Goose" was recorded by Frankie Laine and hit #1. He started writing songs for westerns and appearing in "singing cowboy" bit parts in the early 1950s. Gilkyson joined Rich Dehr and Frank Miller of the folk duo The Easy Riders in 1953. Dean Martin took their "Memories Are Made of This" to #1 in 1955. The Easy Riders first recordings in 1956 included their own hit, "Marianne," which rose to Billboard's number five and Cashbox's number two chart positions. Gilkyson and the other members of The Easy Riders wrote and/or performed a number of other influential songs that would leave an important legacy to folk music's pre-revival period: "Everybody Loves Saturday Night," "South Coast," "Greenfields," "Sweet Sugar Cane," "Love is a Golden Ring," "Young in Love," "The Girl in the Wood," "Leina," and "Remember the Alamo" as well as a song titled "Tell the Captain" which is better known as "Sloop John B." They enjoyed great popularity in an era when many of the more "political" folk singers were finding it difficult to find recording contracts because of the Blacklist. Gilkyson left The Easy Riders for the second time in 1962, and he started working for Disney, having written songs for SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON (1960). He wrote songs for SAVAGE SAM (1963), THE THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA (1963), THE MOON-SPINNERS (1964), THE JUNGLE BOOK (1967) and MY DOG THE THIEF (1969, TV movie). He retired in the 1970s and lived his last years in Santa Fe, NM.  Nominated for Music Best Song 1967: THE JUNGLE BOOK "The Bare Necessities" - Music & Lyric 1 nomination