Jeff grew up in a musical household, singing at home and at church. As a young man he began playing the guitar, first learning popular and rock and roll music, later turning towards folk and traditional idioms. In college, he began playing banjo and mandolin, later adding fiddle and button accordion. In 1977, he co-founded the traditional music group Old Grey Goose and has toured with them throughout his native New England as well as in the southern Appalachians and the Pacific Northwest. In 1990, he toured Brazil with Project Troubadour, an organization devoted to international cultural exchange through music. He has worked as a folklorist for numerous cultural organizations in Maine and the Canadian Maritimes, conducting research, producing folk festivals and radio documentaries, and collecting folk songs and dance tunes from traditional musicians. In 2002, the Governor of Maine appointed Jeff to the Maine Arts Commission. When not playing music he is co-owner and operator of an oyster farm.

Eric grew up in France where he began playing rock and roll music in the mid-1960’s, influenced by the British and American bands of the period. His mother bought him a banjo as a high-school graduation present. He took it with him to Maine in 1969 where he also discovered the mandolin and began playing the traditional music of the region. While teaching in Europe, he wrote a textbook on how to use folksong in the classroom to teach American History and Social Studies. “Folksongs bring history to life,” Rolfson explained. “Because these songs tell a story, you quickly get to the essence of the drama. Live performance, which has immediate emotional impact for students, also helps them retain detail,” Rolfson noted. Rolfson currently works at the University of Maine as vice president for development.

Bennett Konesni was raised in Maine and was naturally drawn into the strong communities of old-time music, sailing, and farming in the area.  At thirteen he shipped as a deckhand aboard local schooners, sailing Penobscot Bay and learning the traditional work songs of the tall ships as he raised sails and hauled anchor.  Later, at Middlebury College, Bennett co-founded the student farm and spent six months studying Zulu farming songs in South Africa.  He was awarded a Thomas J Watson fellowship to spend a postgraduate year in Tanzania, Ghana, Mongolia, Vietnam, Switzerland, and Holland studying worksongs of sea, field and steppe. This included 9 weeks of research in Khovd Aimag, Mongolia.  

More recently Bennett co-founded Sylvester Manor, a 243-acre educational farm on Shelter Island, NY.  In addition to long-range strategic planning and outreach for the organization, his roles include teaching worksongs to the farm crew and directing the annual fall festival “Plant & Sing”, which brings the community to the farm to complete two week’s worth of garlic shucking and planting in a single morning, all while singing.  Bennett has given a Ted talk about his work, and speaks, teaches, and performs regularly throughout North America individually and as parts of several bands.  He and his wife Edith are building a homestead of their own in Belfast, Maine.