Fixed my problem. I put the XML response into a validator and "WHOAAAAA!!! ERRRORS".  Simple solution - any field that is going to have any char that is not [a-z][A-Z][0-9]... use CDATA

http://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_cdata.asp

Code :
echo "<?xml version=\\"1.0\\" encoding=\\"utf-8\\"?>";
echo "<rows>";
echo "<page>".$pageNo."</page>";
echo "<total>".$lastPage."</total>";
echo "<records>".$CurCount."</records>";

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result,MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
echo "<row id='". $row['id']."'>";           
            echo "<cell>". $row['artist']."</cell>";
            echo "<cell>". $row['album']."</cell>";
            echo "<cell>". $row['quanity']."</cell>";
            echo "<cell>". $row['price']."</cell>";
            echo "<cell>". $row['place']."</cell>";
            echo "<cell>". $row['link']."</cell>";
echo "</row>";
}
echo "</rows>";
?>

Response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<rows><page>1</page><total>2</total><records>Array</records><row id='33'><cell>Driving Blind</cell><cell

>Driving Blind</cell><cell>2</cell><cell>0.77</cell><cell>Second Spin</cell><cell>http://www.secondspin

.com/cart.jsp?add=true&trans=buy&condition=used&type=1&price=0.77&id=885350</cell></row><row id='4'>

<cell>Bent Scepters</cell><cell>Blind Date with Destiny</cell><cell>7</cell><cell>1.47</cell><cell>Second

 Spin</cell><cell>http://www.secondspin.com/cart.jsp?add=true&trans=buy&condition=used&type=1&price=1

.47&id=847459</cell></row><row id='28'><cell>Budapest</cell><cell>Too Blind to Hear</cell><cell>7</cell

><cell>1.59</cell><cell>Second Spin</cell><cell>http://www.secondspin.com/cart.jsp?add=true&trans=buy

&condition=used&type=1&price=1.59&id=2219316</cell></row><row id='2'><cell>Ben Harper/Blind Boys of Alabama

</cell><cell>Live at the Apollo</cell><cell>2</cell><cell>10.99</cell><cell>Second Spin</cell><cell>http

://www.secondspin.com/cart.jsp?add=true&trans=buy&condition=used&type=1&price=10.99&id=2525866</cell

></row><row id='10'><cell>Blind Guardian</cell><cell>Follow the Blind</cell><cell>1</cell><cell>12.99

</cell><cell>Second Spin</cell><cell>http://www.secondspin.com/cart.jsp?add=true&trans=buy&condition

=used&type=1&price=12.99&id=875330</cell></row><row id='18'><cell>Blind Melon</cell><cell>Best of Blind

 Melon [Bonus DVD] [Limited Edition]</cell></row></rows>

And the jqGrid call : 
	$("#table1").jqGrid({
    				url:'wrap/query.php',
    				datatype: 'xml',
    				xmlReader : {
						root: "rows",
  						row: "row",
						page: "rows>page",
						total: "rows>total",
						records : "rows>records",
  						repeatitems: true,
  						cell: "cell",
  						id: "[id]",
					},
    				mtype: 'GET',
	    			colNames:['Artist','Album', 'Quan.','Price','Place','URL'],
    				colModel :[ 
      					{name:'artist', index:'artist', width:55}, 
      					{name:'album', index:'album', width:90}, 
      					{name:'quanity', index:'quanity', width:80}, 
      					{name:'price', index:'price', width:80}, 
      					{name:'place', index:'place', width:80}, 
      					{name:'link', index:'link', width:150}],
    				pager: jQuery('#pager'),
    				rowNum:50,
    				rowList:[10,20,30],
    				sortname: 'price',
    				sortorder: "asc",
    				viewrecords: true,
    				imgpath: 'js/themes/coffee/images',
    				caption: 'Your Search for: <? echo $mSearch; ?>'

Any Ideas?