Colin Holme hands off his banjo before he climbs aboard. When he reaches the deck, it’s passed over to him. Guitarist-singer Adam Perron and fiddler Justin Ward follow, and once they’ve all made it onto the boat, hang their instruments over the sides and begin to paddle.

But not really. The boat is on a trailer parked in a Bridgton lot. They are near their places of employment, Lakes Environmental Association and a bookshop. The unintended metaphor, however, is a good one: Perron’s self-penned tunes are anchored, yet move as if the trio’s paddling across a still lake. The songs are at once forlorn and hopeful, mellow and rocking.

The Dollar Trio performs as part of the Waterford Music Fest, which happens on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Wilkins House, 19 Plummer Hill Road in Waterford. Besides the trio, the lineup includes Skip Green and his group Waterford Slim, Don Chase and the Maine-iac Mountaineers, singer-songwriter Davy Sturtevant, Bill Mead, Jun Hou’s Springwater Music and high school singer Shannon Fillebrown, who recently won the Lake Region’s Got Talent contest.

This, however, is no ordinary music festival—it comes with a cause. The suggested donation at the door is $10, and the money collected will go to the Waterford Emergency Fuel Fund, which provides oil, propane, K1 or wood to residents in emergency situations.

Though most people won’t be too desperate for fuel in the near future, Holme says that this is the time to collect some cash.

“It’s hard to raise money around here in the winter,” he says. “There’s certainly a lot of people around here who need heating assistance.”

Perron might be one of them. His “house vest” is a down jacket worn winter-long because he keeps his place at 54 or 55 degrees. “There’s not much reason to keep it up,” he says, adding that the cold air blows right through the poorly insulated walls.

Last week they didn’t need any jackets as they practiced for the big event. Up to this point they’ve mostly just played the Bridgton Farmers’ Market together, a low-pressure performance situation.

“Over the last year really we’ve been playing more and more of my stuff and now mostly my stuff,” Perron says.

Perron, 27, the youngest of the trio, says that Michael Hurley and Jeff Fredericks got him thinking that he should write songs, and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweety is influential too.

Holme found him back when Perron was a teenager and showed up with his guitar. After listening to him, Holme thought, “Oh, he’s really good.”

Holme was into Modest Mouse and its new wave vibe at that time and Perron was listening to Phish, but once they began playing their music melded. Holme and Ward had been jamming on acoustic classic and modern rock tunes when the three decided to play together.

“It gives us something to do while we hang out,” Holmes says.

Perron picks up his guitar and starts strumming. Holme begins picking on the banjo and, finally, Ward puts his bow to fiddle strings. They are three different men and musicians. Holmes plays his banjo with joy, Perron is the intent rocker and Ward is the quiet one. And yet, they make sense. (Bassist Andre Villoch may sit in as the fourth member of The Dollar Trio on Friday – stayed tuned for what he’s like.) The song they are playing is about a dream Perron had about a woman, and the sound of the fiddle draws out the mood of that unconscious world.

If their practice session is any indication, on stage they’ll warm the hearts—and later the homes—of Waterford residents.