RADFORD -- The folks at Meg's called them back for an encore. The staff at Mi Puerto said "Feliz Navidad." The crowd at the sports bar even turned off the canned music so they could listen.

But the dancing elf at the tattoo parlor was the star of the evening.

It was a bluegrass Christmas in downtown Radford -- where caroling is becoming a tradition.

Almost every Monday evening, a gang of guitar players, banjo pickers, fiddle sawers, bass thumpers and mandolinists gather at the Coffee Mill to jam. This past Monday -- the Monday before the jam takes its holiday break -- some of those musicians took to the sidewalks and businesses of Main Street for their session of bluegrass Christmas caroling.

This musical meandering can now be called a Yuletide tradition in the New River City.

It's the second year in a row they've done it.

The gang had gathered -- Ralph Berrier on fiddle, Chris Burgoyne on mandolin, Frank Fitzgerald on guitar, Susan Gaskins on bass -- and seemed poised to begin until Berrier asked: "Y'all know any Christmas songs?"

It turns out they did. Sort of. And after eight minutes of rehearsal the quartet had a handful of tunes ready to go. So they went. With Fitzgerald wearing a Santa hat and Gaskins wheeling her bass along the sidewalk in a modified golf bag cart, they moved down Main Street, bursting into stores with a hearty, "Merry Christmas!" and an announcement that they'd like to play a Christmas carol or two.

Before anyone had a chance to object, Berrier -- he writes about music for The Roanoke Times, by the way -- would lead the group into "Jingle Bells" or "Silent Night" or "What Child is This?" or "Christmas Time's A-Coming."

Along the way, they picked up another guitar player, Kendall Weddle.

Shoppers and shopkeepers smiled, clapped their hands and tapped their feet. Some followed the band from store to sports bar to barber shop to tattoo parlor.

And while each visit was enjoyable in its own way, the goings on at Ancient Art Tattoo had to be the highlight of the evening.

As the band fired up "Jingle Bells," Frank Lucas, an apprentice tattoo artist, slid out onto the open section of the black-and-white tile floor. Lucas wore a red Santa-style hat with "NAUGHTY" and "NICE" written in the white, furry trim. His jeans were just baggy enough that he had to hold them up with his latex-gloved hands when he began to dance.

And dance he did. Lucas twisted his feet. He hopped. He kept time with the music by slapping his left foot against his right hand and his right foot against his left hand. Then he twisted some more.

It was quite a performance.

"I've had the Christmas spirit all day," Lucas said when it ended, "ever since I put my hat on this morning."

After an hour of playing and singing Christmas carols, the roving band of bluegrass players returned to the Coffee Mill, where more players were gathering. The group hardly settled into their seats before someone who hadn't been caroling called out, "Want to try 'Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer'?"

"Who wrote that? Tex Ritter?"

"Gene Autry. He wrote 'Here Comes Santa Claus,' too."

That last part was drowned out for everyone more than a foot or two from the speaker. The music had already started again.