Jackson, being no fan of NPR, likes to listen to music in the car. So I oblige him. Mostly I play requests, but sometimes I can't look at my phone right then or am bored of the same thing over and over, so he does get exposed to various things.

Recently he requested "a train song." I had no idea what he was talking about, but on further discussion, he really wanted a song about a train. Okay... um... I have 8 gigs of music on my phone, there must be a song about a train in there somewhere. I eventually thought of two: I thought I might have City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie, and I definitely had Casey Jones by the Dead. The latter seemed rather inappropriate for a toddler, so I looked for the former. It turns out I didn't have that version, but I did have a cover by Judy Collins, which I had never to my knowledge listened to before. Jackson loved it, asks for it all the time: "City of Moo Orleans!"

I just put the songs he frequently requests into a playlist for ease of finding them. Here it is, the tastes of a 21st century 2-year-old (almost) when exposed to his dad's out-of-date music collection.

If I Had A Hammer	Peter, Paul & Mary
Life Is A Highway	Rascal Flatts
City Of New Orleans	Judy Collins
Suddenly I See		KT Tunstall
Sweet Home Alabama	Lynyrd Skynyrd
Burning Down The House	Talking Heads
Puff The Magic Dragon	Peter, Paul & Mary
Down By the Bay		Raffi
If I Had $1000000	Barenaked Ladies

I'm not really sure what to make of that. He wasn't impressed by the Beatles. Today he heard and liked Hey There Delilah by the Plain White T's, but I don't know if it's going to make his standard rotation.

Anyone have a better idea for a train song?