i spent a sunny, spring sunday with seven friends, serenading the sleepy town of napa.

we started out at a cafe, moved to the lawn of the "records building", strolled down the street to another cafe (yes, playing and singing the whole way), made it onto several tourists home videos, got kicked out of the 2nd cafe, played on benches in the park... surrounded by curious skater kids, some bums, and 3 old ladies who had the hots for stephen barker (they gave him $2). our responsible friends bid us farewell at this point, for it was late afternoon.

but then, the napa trolley stopped right next to us. we were unable to resist the fact that it's FREE, so we hopped aboard with our guitarist, our banjoist, our harmonicist, and a plethora of vocalists. the trolley driver was so excited by the break in monotony that she nearly wrecked the trolley... multiple times! at one point, as stephen and charles were imitating a female vocalist (we were passing through the outlet mall parking lot, as bystanders stared) the trolley conductor was almost in hysterics.

at each stop the driver would slam on the brakes, we all sliiiiiid forward along the benches, midsong, and a mystified napa resident stepped on board. we would move guitar necks, songbooks, and legs to allow the new rider pass, all without missing a beat. the driver pulled the bell rope CLANG-CLANG, stamped on the gas, we all sliiiiiiiid back the other way on the benches, and off we went. we rode the whole circuit, finished "The Lakes of Pontchartrain", and stepped back off at the park where we began, despite encouragement from our fellow riders to complete the circuit once more.