Crosby, Stills & Nash are plotting their first studio album since 1994 — a covers set helmed by Rick Rubin.

"Rick Rubin's a brilliant man," Graham Nash said. "And what he wants is an album with no CSN songs. He wants to do an album of all the songs we love, all the songs we wish we've written. It's brilliant from this point of view because we usually wait five years to record an album. This way, there's no pressure."

Nash said he, David Crosby and Stephen Stills had "many discussions" with Rubin about the project, whittling the proposed list of songs down to 20, which the trio is rehearsing after sound checks during its summer tour. Nash acknowledged that most songs would be considered well-known.

He expects recording to start in early 2009 for release later in the year. The set, which will be CSN's first new release since 1994's "After the Storm," is one of many projects on the trio's plate. "CSNY: Deja Vu," the documentary of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 2006 Freedom of Speech Tour, has been released, and the companion live album is out. Nash, meanwhile, is overseeing a number of archival projects, including his own boxed set, which will be released in time for his 67th birthday in February.

He's curating a Stills box set, and recently discovered an album's worth of material of Stills playing with Jimi Hendrix. Nash is also putting together a live album from CSNY's 1974 stadium tour, a set of Crosby/Nash acoustic recordings, and a benefit record for the Children's Defense Fund that will feature his and Crosby's collaborations over the years with Elton John, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Phil Collins and Jackson Browne and others.

Los Lobos rocks out for kids on new CD

Not only is Los Lobos hitting the road with Los Lonely Boys for the monthlong "Brotherhood Tour," including Friday at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, the group is prepping a children's album for November.

"The conceptual framework is, we interpreted classic Disney songs like Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,' When you Wish Upon a Star' and I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song),'" saxophonist-keyboardist Steve Berlin said. "There are no Elton John-era Disney tracks. But it came out really good, and we're all happy with it."

Los Lobos is out of its contract with label Hollywood, but owed the company the Disney-themed record. "It was built into the deal, and we never got around to it while we were signed to them," Berlin said. "So they gave us our release and then also gave us a budget to do this album."

This isn't the first children's album foray for Los Lobos, which not only released the critically acclaimed 1995 album "Music for Papa's Dream," but contributed "I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)" to the 1988 compilation "Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films." In fact, the latter is getting stage time during the Los Lobos set. "There's a bunch of stuff from the new kids record that sounds really good to me and that I'd love to be able to put in there," Berlin said. "The kids record doesn't sound like a kids record. It just sounds like Los Lobos playing funky old songs, so I imagine over time, we'll probably be integrating some of those songs."

— Billboard