American Garage

Pat Metheny | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 10, 1994)
• Label: Ecm Records
• ASIN: B0000031QT
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #171,591 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. (Cross The) Heartland

2. Airstream

3. The Search

4. American Garage

5. The Epic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD!, June 4, 2005

By 

STEPHEN T. McCARTHY (a Mensa-donkey in Phoenix, Airheadzona.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Garage (Audio CD)

I spent some time in a particular record shop in L.A. as a twenty-something. In 1984, I kept examining a 2-disc live Jazz set called, 'TRAVELS' because something about the cover intrigued me. Finally, one day I broke down and purchased it even though I'd never heard of THE PAT METHENY GROUP. Every once in awhile you roll the dice and win big. Since then, Pat Metheny has enriched my life like no other musician!

It wasn't long before I discovered that some purely magical quality about his compositions (The tempo? No. The rhythms? Hmmm...) made them conducive to stress-free driving and seemingly transformed life seen through the windshield into some kind of imaginary movie. Oddly, everything one sees seems to be the ideal visual accompaniment to the music that is playing at all times. (I'll never forget listening to 'TRAVELS' through headphones while traveling by locomotive through the deep woods between Fort Bragg and Willits, California. It was a nearly mystical experience!)

After awhile I acquired other P.M.G. recordings like his elaborately textured, Brazilian-accented sets, 'THE FIRST CIRCLE', 'STILL LIFE (TALKING)', and 'LETTER FROM HOME' (my favorites) and found that I could put any one of them into my car player and let it repeat for - LITERALLY - a month or more without tiring of it.

Because Metheny's sound DID gain a deeper and richer resonance over the years and because I never owned 'AMERICAN GARAGE' on lp, I didn't realize that this disc was poorly mastered, as several other reviewers have pointed out. But it's true : the sound has a pronounced high-end jangling to it, and while it won't entirely infringe on your listening pleasure, it does leave something to be desired. (Like a little bass perhaps!)

The first two tracks, (CROSS THE) HEARTLAND and AIRSTREAM are great open road pieces, evoking images of corn and wheat fields seen flashing by at 65 miles an hour from the interstate, and the titles indicate that early on, Metheny realized that his music inherently expresses a sense of motion. THE SEARCH features some very delicate and pretty piano work from Metheny's longtime musical collaborator, Lyle Mays. The title track, AMERICAN GARAGE, shows the Group in a revved up mood and employing some distinct Gospel inflections. This is closer to Rock than Jazz. And although I do enjoy THE EPIC - aptly titled at 13 minutes - it tends to meander just a bit. The whole album times out at just under 36 minutes - about half of the musical content found on most of his later releases.

'AMERICAN GARAGE' would be worth having if just for that great album cover : The deep blue, cloud-kissed sky and soft Autumn light reflecting off of an Airstream dealership. (Are you old enough to remember those large silver bullets being pulled all across the heartland? And the yearning to travel the countryside that they instilled in the mind?) Even so, I would have to place 'AMERICAN GARAGE' into Metheny's Second Tier of music. In my subjective opinion, the "Metheny Must-Haves" are the aforementioned titles, plus 'SECRET STORY.' If you dig those, then you may want to explore this disc, also 'WE LIVE HERE' (his trademark guitar synthesizer finds a funky groove thang), '80/81' (for straightforward Jazz), and 'BEYOND THE MISSOURI SKY' with Charlie Haden (for those late night / early morning super mellow hours at home).

[*WARNING : Make sure you've already heard what you're buying if it is "Pat Metheny" without his "Group." I don't necessarily like every album he's produced, even with the "Group", but a few of his solo projects are nothing more than "experiments" in dissonance!]

Just as a dog has never really experienced a walk until it has ditched its leash, you, my friend, have never really experienced a "road trip" until you've traveled with the Pat Metheny Group. If Stephen T. McCarthy is driving, you can be sure that Pat is playing!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A CLASSIC, March 2, 2005

By 

Major W. Wheelock III "Major" (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Garage (Audio CD)

This album is a classic. Metheny has many different styles. This is a very popular style. His sound chops and heart are all in this one. I like his new stuff too but this is where it starts for me. The cd was not mixed well like others have stated. I own the cd but I also have recorded the record on to cd which sounds much better. How can anyone give this classic less than 5 stars.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars JUST SMILE AND HANG OUT WITH INTELLIGENT PEOPLE, August 9, 2006

By 

Crabby Apple Mick Lee (INDIANAPOLIS, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Garage (Audio CD)

Ranks among Pat Metheny's very best. I would recommend AMERICAN GARAGE to almost anyone who wants to get a taste of jazz as it came out of the "lost years" of the 1970's. There are some sounds among these pieces that would become a part of the "smooth jazz" movement as it would become known in the 1990's; but there is nothing to fear about for being accused of being "light weight" or "diluted" that drew the wrath of jazz heads toward the endless parade of phonies that so many felt "stole" attention and record purchases away from real jazz.

Far from dreary, AMERICAN GARAGE sings of joy and provides much to interest upon repeated listening. Metheny would go on to be a small jazz industry in himself in succeeding years and his musical vocabulary would expand--sometimes not for the better. Nevertheless, this is the perfect marriage of electric guitar and keyboards many still seek today. Only five cuts; but pleasing and intelligent all the same.