Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

This one at first blush frankly looked like a loser. A lot of what passes for kid's music tends to be pretty cutesy. Past projects which have taken contemporary artists and matched 'em up with childrens' songs have tended to result in the inducement of diabetic coma. I could name names, but I won't. I don't want to hear from all of you James Taylor and Carly Simon fans.

Accordingly, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting a whole lot when I sacrificed a fingernail and split the cellophane on COUNTRY GOES RAFFI. I mean, I've got four kids, ranging in age from 23 to 4, and Raffi owes me.

I've pretty much financed his career, and received not so much as a card of thanks. I've got one of the songs or another which are on COUNTRY GOES RAFFI on all sorts of collections scattered around my house or those of my ex-wives. Yet, I had to give it a chance. I mean, first of all, it's on Rounder, which is incapable of putting out anything bad or boring, and second of all, there are some real heavy hitters on here.

There's Asleep at the Wheel, who haven't hit a bad note in almost 30 years; Alison Krauss, incapable of doing anything poorly; Marty Stuart; the horribly under-appreciated Lee Roy Parnell (why isn't this guy a superstar?); and...well, you get the idea. So I threw 'er on and cranked 'er up.

And I'm glad I did. The key here is that absolutely none of the musicians involved in this project dumbed this material down, or treated it as if they were slumming. The greatest example of this is keith urban's treatment of "Apples and Bananas." This is a...well, a real basic song, one that deals with the vowels of the alphabet, one that is played for laughs while slipping a little education in. I had expected somewhat of a ham-handed interpretation from urban, who occasionally comes on like the second coming of Elvis. And I was wrong. He nails this track perfectly, never talking down to the little ones in the audience while at the same time throwing in just enough to keep the adults out there interested as well. Marty Stuart pulls off a similar trick with "Naturally," throwing in a little Carl Perkins' "chukka chukka" guitar work into the mix to make mom and dad sit up and take notice while keeping the little ones happy. Maybe the biggest surprise on here, however, is Raffi himself, who pulls off a surprise appearance with a country take on his own "Blue White Planet," and makes the transition so smoothly that unless you're paying close attention you'd never even know he wandered in. A close second is Lee Roy Parnell, whose rough-edged vocals somehow complement "Rise and Shine" perfectly. You can almost hear him smiling behind the vocals.

Parnell even throws a little of his beautiful acoustic slide guitar work into the mix. Similarly, Rhoda Vincent brings her band along on "Bananaphone," which means brilliant, brilliant picking from Tom Adams.

Ms. Vincent is no slouch here, herself, transforming this happy tune into a Western Swing number that will be running through your mind long after the kiddies --- and you--- have gone to bed. Speaking of western swing, I did mention that Asleep at the Wheel is a contributor to this CD, did I not? Their take on "The Bowling Song," which opens COUNTRY GOES RAFFI, does the impossible twice. It makes you forget that it's 1) a children's song and that 2) it's about bowling. Amazing.

COUNTRY GOES RAFFI is that rarest of CDs, one that you are as likely to listen to by yourself as with a carfull of anklebiters while driving from Point A to Point B. I can't remember a children's CD with such broad appeal.

Actually, I can't remember an adult CD with such broad appeal, either. Kudos to everyone involved: Raffi for the songs, the artists for the performances, Tracy Gershon the producer, for keeping things on track, and Rounder for having the cajones to release it. This is "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" for the kindergarten set.