The music came naturally.

The parents of the extraordinary musicians in this four-part article all talked about the natural ability of their young children to stay focused on the music they were learning to play. Make no mistake: the evolution from that first G run to sheer improvisational brilliance didn't happen overnight! However, in their early careers, these musicians were consistently self-motivated, kept enthusiastic by their interaction with other musicians and by frequent exposure to excellent live music.

Family commitment and support were also common threads in the childhoods of the performers discussed in this article. Parents provided instrument upgrades, low-pressure encouragement, and chauffeur service to lessons and events. And bluegrass became a favored form of recreation: vacations were planned around festivals and appearances, and anticipated with excitement by the whole family.

In the words of Karen Watkins, "What could be healthier than that?"

Louise Rice, mother of Tony, Wyatt, Larry, and Ronnie Rice: As the mother of four young boys with musical interests, and the wife of a man whose work took the family all over the country, Louise Rice certainly must have had her hands full. Her sons have made unique contributions to bluegrass music. Wyatt's superb band, Santa Cruz, appears in venues all over the country; Larry is a gifted songwriter, vocalist, and mandolinist; Ronnie has appeared on two Rice Brothers albums and works on compilation CDs for Time-Life. And Tony is critically and popularly recognized as one of the best acoustic guitarists in the world today.

I have six brothers, and they're all musically minded. My husband's sisters and dad had a radio show in Danville, VA, way back in the late '30s, early '40s.

Tony was three when we moved to California in 1954. My husband Herbert and I decided we wanted to move there; that was our dream. He and my brother started a band called the Golden State Boys. They had a radio show on Sunday mornings, and played Saturdays on Channel 13 in L.A. They played at hootenannies and coffee houses. It was just music, all the time.

The boys would get paid at these little gigs. We divided the money among them, and saw that they had nice clothes to wear. My husband would see to the business and the upkeep of the instruments; I was more concerned about their clothes and haircuts! It was natural to see them pick up a guitar or a mandolin. The music was in their blood. We didn't push them and say, "You have to practice." It was left up to them. School was important; it came first. They were in the Boy Scouts, and Little League, and they lived a normal life.

Larry, Tony, and Ronnie had their little band called the Haphazards, and a little boy named Andy Evans played the banjo. They played at The Troubadour, on the radio sometimes, and all over L.A. They played Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and a show at the Palladium. I would look at them and think how amazing it was that they picked up on the music as quickly as they did.

Tony was 17 and we were living near Charlotte. He went to Camp Springs and met the Bluegrass Alliance. They got to playing, and hired him. He left that day with them and went to Louisville.

Wyatt was in the school band in Crystal River, Florida. He played the sax, bassoon, and drums. In high school, he was offered a music scholarship to the University of Tampa. He turned it down. I was so perturbed! I said, "Wyatt, this is the opportunity of a lifetime!" At that time, he was in the first stages of puppy love with a girlfriend. Now he says he wishes he'd gone on.

Of my five grandchildren, two are really interested in music. Wyatt has two boys; Jared is 15, and Jordan is 13. Jared plays real good rhythm guitar, and Jordan loves the mandolin.

The proudest I've ever been is when the Seldom Scene had their 15th anniversary at the Kennedy Center, and Tony was playing with them. I couldn't believe it! It was like a dream. I got to meet George Lucas; at the time, George was dating Linda Ronstadt, and she was there. I really enjoyed talking to him! Wyatt was on the Grand Ole Opry, and that was a dream come true, too. He called me three times when he was there!

There's a bluegrass show from Burlington, N.C., and I never fail to listen to that. Rarely does Buddy Michaels miss playing a Tony Rice tune! I'll be in the bedroom, and I'll say, "Oh my gosh, he's playing Tony!" And I run in the living room and turn it up. The thrill is still there.

Music was instilled in our children; it was an everyday thing to pick up a guitar or mandolin and just play. If you think your child is really interested in music, don't push them into it. Let it come naturally!

Karen Watkins, mother of Sean and Sara Watkins: This year, Nickel Creek has emerged as one of the hottest acoustic music ensembles in the country. Their videos are big hits on CMT, they've performed with Vince Gill and Dolly Parton, and their self-titled album went gold in February. As parents of two founding members of this extraordinary young group, Karen and Chuck Watkins were intensely involved in the early musical careers of their children, but have stepped back to let a capable management team take over. "We are very happy, now, to be cheering from the sidelines!" says Karen.

When I was pregnant, and when Sean was a toddler, we had classical music on almost all the time. As they were growing up, I'd listen to the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and Linda Ronstadt; I would play her Greatest Hits constantly. I played many bits of music when they were young. I don't remember, but they do. I see it influencing them, especially when Sean writes; I hear a lot of the stuff we played when they were young.

Once they started getting into bluegrass, we didn't play anything else. We felt they would absorb it, and be able to play it, which they did! We played Mark O'Connor and Tony Rice all the time. We didn't talk about it; it was just there, and they absorbed it. I think it was an osmosis sort of thing. We're very strong believers in trying to control the environment that your kids grow up in.

I don't know where the line is drawn between genetics and environment. If a relative loves music, and it's being played all the time, how much is absorbed that way?

We started going to That Pizza Place where John Moore and Dennis Caplinger played. We watched bluegrass every Saturday night for almost ten years. It was important to us that the kids didn't just think that music came out of a radio. We wanted them to see live music. In the Pizza Place environment, they could do whatever they wanted, and visit with this wonderful, supportive group of people who went to hear the music.

There were so many emotional ties to these people that the kids felt like it was a family. There was never any nervousness or stress. Sara would fall asleep in front of the speakers. We had no idea what it was fostering in them. When they started playing, they immediately knew when to come in on a break, what a song needed, where the baseline should goBjust by running around, playing with balloons, and listening all those years.

We had them in a Christian school, and that was difficult because of their schedules. September and June are big festival seasons, and we would be gone a lot. When they started recording their self-produced albums, they were involved in expenses, selling, and all aspects of marketing. I'd log what they did; they were learning a lot. But it was difficult when we came back and they'd have a test on something they hadn't been in class for. So we pulled them out and continued with homeschooling.

When they were in school, they threw everything into their weekends of music, then came home and almost not talk about what they did. The [other] kids couldn't relate. While the teachers loved that Sara was playing fiddle, the other girls weren't very kind. There were things she didn't even know she was being judged on, but she sensed the judgment. At a time when all boys care about is athletics, there was Sean playing mandolin and guitar in a form of music that wasn't popular. Because the majority of their time away from school was so positive, it overshadowed that. But they certainly didn't mind coming out to homeschool.

There were a lot of things they didn't do. They weren't involved in sports. Sean was in soccer a little when he was young. but this is what we did. All our vacation money went into festivals. This was our family thing. It was really fun. If they'd wanted to [play sports], they could have. We didn't tell them not to; we just explained that if they did, they couldn't go to festivals, because they'd have games on Saturday.

I never really looked at them as prodigies, but as kids working hard to achieve goals. They worked on their music daily; we didn't have to force them. But it came before anything else. It didn't matter that it was music, although we were pleased that it was. We thought music would serve them in the future. They could always pick up an instrument and play for their own pleasure as adults, whereas they might not always pick up a soccer ball.

They didn't really need anything socially because they were so involved. Chuck and I felt that a selected few friends was better. While kids need a lot of input, I don't believe they need 30 friends of their own age. They need a few their own age, a few older, and a few younger.

I had some concerns about safety [at festivals]. They'd stay up till 4:00 AM, and Chuck would stay out with them. I remember being concerned with them see drinking as something that went along with the music. It dawned on me that they were seeing the consequences of drinking. Thankfully, the majority of people were sober, clean-talking, and protective.

John taught them jamming etiquette, and many things that built their character in other ways. Most of what they learned when they were young instrumentalists was acquired jamming with people they admired. And they'd learn life lessons, as well. They'd sit at the stages and just absorb. It was an overall education, with music as the common core. The things they were taught reached into every area of their life.

The year the album came out, Sean was registered at San Diego State in a composition program, and he had to quit. He was sad, because he'd worked very hard to get into that program. But he does have his A.A. Sara didn't quite finish hers. She went to Palomar and Mira Costa, took lots of music classes. They had to go on the road to support the album. A parent wants to see a kid have a degree, but they would have given up doing what they were taking their classes to do. Their opportunity to learn it in the real world had come. Now, they're learning so much. I'm just amazed at their knowledge.

The transition to our semi-empty nest has been gradual. Band business took up a lot of time. Scott, because he played with the band, carried the lion's share of responsibilities. Kathy and I handled the planning. We weren't prepared for the complications involved as it progressed. It got pretty scary there near the end. Everyone saw that it was time. The management team was very sensitive to the difficulty we had letting go of the control we had in the kid's careers. They never let us feel out of the loop. John Peets immediately grasped the band's vision, and invested all his energies and abilities into bringing it together for them.

While it was strange to let go of the reins, it was also a relief, because we knew we weren't ready for what appeared to be coming down the road. The timing of the management decision was perfect because the kids had matured and developed their own identities both musically and personally, so our relationships evolved relatively smoothly into ones of parental support and love for our kids in the careers of their choice. What could be healthier than that?

Please join me next month for Part III of this series, which will include interviews with the parents of The Shankman Twins and Alison & Viktor Krauss. -C.W.