And I was amazed at some of the soundtracks to kids' movies lately -- especially the Shrek movies. He knew them all word for word, and included many many hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s from disco to Willie Nelson's "On The Road Again." He even knew most of the words to Rufus Wainwright's amazing cover of Leonard Cohen's tragic "Hallelujah." Crazy! Way to go Shrek!

The Squirrel Nut Zipper's "Christmas Caravan" album! It's a quirky mess of Country-ish and Hot Jazz Christmas tunes! Kids should love "Sleigh Ride" and "Carolina Christmas," especially if they live in Carolina. ;-)

For a kid, I think Doc Watson's "Sings Songs for Little Pickers" would be a good one.

To add to your Beatles theme, "A Hard Days Night" is just about my favorite Beatles disc and one of the albums that helped me develop my love of music as a little one. I also really enjoyed Buddy Holly as a kid (still do). If you're going to expose them to early rock-and-roll, you might as well take about two steps backward and introduce them to western swing (Moon Mullican, Bob Wills, etc.) From there you're going to get to Hank Williams and Chuck Berry. From those two guys, the road leads to infinity in both directions.

Good call Sean! I can tell you've been thinking about this too... when is your little one due? Any day now, right?

Man, Bob Wills was a good idea. I wonder if I would've gotten into the fiddle earlier in life if I'd heard Western Swing sooner? It wasn't until I heard the Hot Club of Cowtown and their massively Bob Wills-influenced sound that I thought about picking the fiddle up myself.

Yeah, I've been thinking about it a lot. She could get here any day now; the official due date is Dec. 17. I've picked up a couple of kids CDs -- Woody Guthrie's "Songs for Mother and Child to Grow On," Jason Ringenberg's "A Day at the Farm With Farmer Jason," and the compilation "The Bottle Let Me Down: Songs For Bumpy Wagon Rides." I plan on playing plenty of grown-up music for her, too.

Hot Club of Cowtown would be a fine choice for a child, too. I don't know if you've been following their Web site, but it's giving all impressions that the band has split up. If that's true, the only good news is that they appear to have split into two similar bands. That would be kind of like the bummer/jackpot that resulted from the Uncle Tupelo breakup.

Just anything by Tom Paxton - "Marvelous Toy" is pretty timeless.

This is something I'm mulling at the moment for my 11yo nephew. He favours Queen and Green Day so I need to find something in that vein. "Rocking yet inoffensive!" says his mother. Can't believe that little boy is listening to Green Day! Time flies. I'm making them a compilation of "my music" too, of blues, country, rock. Henry (nephew) and his sister Sophie (aged 8) really like the O Brother soundtrack so I'm loading it up with bluegrassy stuff to. They dig the beat.

Also if they are older kids, of the American/Australian Idol watching age, I always recommend Ryan Adams' Gold. It is pop music really, but with killer riffs, alot of variety, more depth. I think its a good bridge.

Also, speaking of Christmas its about 90F (32C) here at the moment. Hope y'all enjoying the snow.

I remember seeing lots of little kids rocking out to Donna the Buffalo at various Merlefests. Maybe they dig the fun grooves and all the different sounds (no child can resist the washboard!) going on. I think BR5-49 could work, too.

Your friend's kid sounds awesome, Larry! Tell him to quit school and come work for hickorywind.org, pronto. :)

Well, I can say that my son (who is still pretty much a baby) goes ape over Sara Watkins voice, so I would say Nickel Creek...good beats, and fun songs like The Fox. Also, David Grisman/Jerry Garcia's "Not for Kids Only" would be an excellent one to break the kid into some good bluegrass. Grisman is the man, I love Dawg music...come to think of it, I don't ever remember Grisman getting any time on Hickory Wind. What's up with that?

Waylon, I've had a long, slow recovery from a very bad encounter with Dave Grisman when I was in college. I had no clue who he was at the time, but he was playing with Doc Watson at the TN Theatre in Knoxville. The entire time I thought he hogged the mic, acted like Doc was there to back him up, and every other sentence he said was one of "this one time when I was jamming with Jerry Garcia," "Jerry and I did it like this," or "did you know I was personal friends with Jerry Garcia?" And it just really rubbed me the wrong way. I felt that anyone that I had never heard of that tried to make *Doc Watson* be second chair was an asshole.

Of course, I've since found that Grisman is a helluva player, and was very influential in the Bluegrass scene of the 60s and 70s, and is of course not really the asshole I thought he was. However, first impressions are hard to overcome, and like I said -- it's been a long, slow recovery. I think I need to buy some "Old and In the Way" records.

All that being said, I also want to say that "Dawgy Mountain Breakdown," the theme song to Car Talk, has got be one of my favorite instrumentals.

Wow, yeah I can understand how that would leave a bad taste in your mouth...there aren't many people out there who should be standing in front of Doc Watson. I saw him in concert in ATL and got a totally different impression...he seemed like a really cool guy who showed a lot of appreciation for the roots of bluegrass and recognized his band members on many occasions. Except for the LSD laden, aging hipster chicks dancing around with streamers down front, I had an amazing time at his show...weird how someone could be so different.

The Bob Wills suggestion is a very good one. I'd recommend that instead of going straight to the source, to instead go with "Asleep at the Wheel's" Tribute to the Music of Bob Wills. The production is much cleaner, the performances excellent, plus you get an array of guest vocalists (e.g., Willie, Dolly, etc.)

My kids love this one.

I'm going to use our kid as a litmus test and see how the following listening pattern goes: Django Reinhardt, Hot Club of Cowtown, the Beatles, Fountains of Wayne, Weezer, the White Stripes, Hole, Archers of Loaf. A logical progression, I think. We'll hit Archers of Loaf around age 12. Kid should knock over her first 7-Eleven by 13.

Here are some artists my boys (10 and 7) like, from a CD I made for them a couple of years ago before a long trip....

Dan Hicks, Asleep at the Wheel, Dirty Dozen, Junior Brown, Buckwheat Zydeco, Bob Marley, Buckwheat Zydeco, Stone Coyotes, Barenaked Ladies.

I stumbled onto this site by googling a Guy Clark song. Nice! :)