American Garage

American Garage
American Garage
Studio album by the Pat Metheny Group
Released	November 1979
Recorded	June 1979
Studio	Long View Farm,; North Brookfield, MA
Genre	Jazz fusion
Length	35:21
Label	ECM
Producer	Pat Metheny
Pat Metheny chronology

Last updated March 25, 2025

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[1]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings	^[3]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	^[4]

American Garage is the second studio album by the Pat Metheny Group, recorded in June 1979 and released on ECM in November 1979. The quartet features rhythm section Lyle Mays, Mark Egan and Dan Gottlieb.^[5]

Background

The album represented the most collaborative writing session between Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays up to that point in the band's history. According to Metheny, this yielded mixed results. He has said that the album's second track, "Airstream," is a favorite from this period. But both he and Mays have expressed less praise for the fifth and final track, "The Epic", which Metheny has claimed, "is all over the map."^[6]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays

Side I
No.	Title	Length
1.	"(Cross the) Heartland"	6:55
2.	"Airstream"	6:20
3.	"The Search"	4:54

Side II
No.	Title	Length
4.	"American Garage"	4:13
5.	"The Epic"	12:59

Personnel

Pat Metheny Group

Pat Metheny – 6-and 12-string electric and acoustic guitars
Lyle Mays – piano, Oberheim synthesizer, autoharp, electric organ
Mark Egan – bass
Dan Gottlieb – drums

Technical personnel

Pat Metheny – producer
Manfred Eicher – executive producer
Kent Nebergall – recording engineer, mixing engineer
Jesse Henderson – assistant engineer
Bill Kipper – mastering at Masterdisk, NYC, USA
Basil Pao – design
Joel Meyerowitz – cover photography
Rob Van Petten – photography

Charts

Year	Chart	Position
1980	Billboard Jazz Albums	1
1980	Billboard Pop Albums	53

References

↑ Ginell, Richard S. (2011). "American Garage - Pat Metheny Group | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
↑ Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.
↑ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 993. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
↑ Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 139. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.
↑ "American Garage". ECM .
↑ Cooke, Mervyn (2017). Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975–1984. Oxford University Press. pp. 137–140.

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[1] Ginell, Richard S. (2011). "American Garage - Pat Metheny Group | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 19 July 2011.

[2] Larkin, Colin (2007). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195313734.

[Penguin-3] Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 993. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.

[RSJRG-4] Swenson, J., ed. (1985). The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide. USA: Random House/Rolling Stone. p. 139. ISBN 0-394-72643-X.

[5] "American Garage". ECM .

[6] Cooke, Mervyn (2017). Pat Metheny: The ECM Years, 1975–1984. Oxford University Press. pp. 137–140.

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