Pat Metheny | New Chautauqua: Touchstones Series (Digipack Packaging) | CD

Solo performer: Pat Metheny (acoustic, 6- & 12-string electric & 15-string harp guitars, electric bass).
Recorded at Talent Studio, Oslo, Norway in August 1978.
Personnel: Pat Metheny (guitars, acoustic guitar, electric 12-string guitar, harp guitar, electric bass).
Guitarist Pat Metheny is one of the few artists that can perform an entire album by himself and sound like whole orchestra on his own. NEW CHAUTAUQUA finds the modern guitar master employing a myriad of stringed instruments, in both solo works and multi-tracked collages, to great effect. Each piece is awash in Metheny's signature pastoral style, full of lush strummed chords and angular melodic lines. So complete is the guitarist's musical creation that it is difficult to distinguish the seams dividing his many instrumental voices, sounding as if he had played them all simultaneously. For the listener, this creates a sublime sonic experience.
The tracks range from dense epics like the opening title track to the programmatic "Daybreak," a delicate solo work that produces a dramatic effect that is both lonesome and comforting. Metheny stays acoustic for much of the disc, employing stunning finger picking on the folk-styled "Country Poem" and the intricate "Sueno Con Mexico." The most haunting piece is the darkly lit "Hermitage," a melancholy work that displays Metheny's renowned expressiveness. Also included is the mood piece "Long Ago Child/Fallen Star," which hints at the guitarist's equally inspiring experimental side.

• Format: CD
• Genre: Pop
• Released: 9/30/2008
• Released: 09/30/2008