Fiddler Rick Martin drives the band, playing in the rhythm-rich, bow-rocking style learned from his mentor Brad Leftwich and reinforced by his longtime musical friend Dan Gellert. This powerful, rhythmic approach, which shapes the playing of today's top old time fiddlers, is the legacy of the incomparable Tommy Jarrell. Rick grew up outside of Hazard, Kentucky, on the banks of Troublesome Creek, and his repertoire features many extraordinary tunes learned from the great masters of his home region such as Bill Stepp, John Salyer, and Luther Strong.

Guitarist/singer Dick Harrington holds the band together with his force-of-nature guitar playing and his powerful vocal leads and harmonies (for which he won first place in the "folk song" category at the Mt. Airy festival). Dick credits the traditional singing of his Scots-Irish grandmother and the influence of longtime friends Pete and Ellen Vigour for his love of old-time music. In the '90s he developed an avid following as guitar player, fiddler, and duet singer with Victoria Young in the Afton Mountain String Band, which released two popular recordings.

Daredevil banjoist Steve Arkin grew up in New York's legendary Washington Square music scene, playing old-time and bluegrass in early bands with Jody Stecher, David Grisman, Maria Muldaur, and other stellar musicians. Over the summer of 1964 he played with Bill Monroe, who in james Rooney's book "Bossmen" said , "Arkin could play the best back-up banjo I have ever heard...Now there ain't no way around it. He could do it. He could put stuff in it and make it sell." Living in Cleveland in the late 60s, Steve began playing old-time music again with Peter Hoover and Lisa Ornstein. In the early 90s he jumped the fence altogether in pursuit of the ancient tones and pulsating rhythms of the old-time sound.