Nice Article. The last two workarounds can be achieved by a statement as follows. No need of workarounds

SELECT

Country.CountryName AS [name],

Country.Currency,

City.CityName AS [name],

Customer.CustomerNumber AS [id],

Customer.CustomerName AS [name],

Customer.Phone

FROM

Customers Customer

INNER JOIN Cities City ON (City.CityID = Customer.CityID)

INNER JOIN Countries Country ON (Country.CountryID = City.CountryID)

ORDER BY CountryName, CityName

FOR XML AUTO, root('CustomersByRegion')

Root function gives a way to assign a name for the root element.