Papa John Kolstad has been performing for more than 50 years, blazing a musical trail across the United States and Europe. He performed regularly on The Prairie Home Companion radio show, has been a featured performer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Winnipeg Folk Festival. In 2022 Papa John was formally inducted into the Minnesota Blues Hall of Fame. He is an accomplished musician, a fine blues singer and songwriter, as well as a stellar picker on both 6 and 12 string guitar. 

Dean Harrington earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Classical Guitar Performance from the U of MN and was a first prize winner in the Schubert Club student scholarship competition. For the last two decades he has been performing music with his own band Mill City Hot Club and other local groups playing swing, gypsy jazz, tango, New Orleans jazz and more. He has been a guitar teacher for over 25 years at K & S Conservatory of Music and more recently The Music Lab and Mount Olivet School of Music in Minneapolis.

Dean Mikkelson has been performing around the twin cities area for over the last twenty years often leading his group Deano and the Dinosaurs. He has also performed with The Mill City Hot Club and recorded with Papa John Kolstad and the Hot Club of East Lake. As a footnote to another Dean guitar master, he was inspired to pursue the guitar after hearing Dean Granros in 1970.