When picking songs for his second album of American standards in the past five years, Boz Scaggs tried to go down the road less traveled. "I found that more obscure songs offer more ways of expression," Scaggs says. "You aren't running over clichés or jumping over Nat Cole or Mel Torme or Chet Baker or whatever." The jazz-infused standards he selected include "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me" (Duke Ellington) and "Skylark" (Hoagy Carmichael). It was cut over four days at George Lucas' remote Skywalker Ranch in Nicasio, California. "You literally move into cottages and have access to the studio for all hours of the day," Scaggs says. "Cell phones don't even work out there. It leads to intense concentration."

Check out all of the albums in the 2008 Fall Music Preview