SOLUTION FOUND

I got the audio cd to play using XMMS. Here is what I did

1. I went into O(ptions) on the XMMS menu - left side marked by an O
2. I went into Preferences
3. I selected audio CD player, Then Configure, Then Options.
4. Under Default CD Device I changed from /dev/cdrom (which has Knoppix DVD) to /dev/cdrom1 (my cd-rw device).
5. I went back to the Preference dialogue and clicked on CD Audio Player
6. I clicked on COnfigure again.
7. This time I clicked Add Drive at the bottom. I In Device I added /dev/cdrom1. I also chalged to Digital Audio Extraction.