Moondial Pat Metheny

After 2023's Dream Box, Pat Metheny embarked on a long solo tour, during which he experimented with a new guitar built for him by luthier Linda Manzer. The custom baritone utilized nylon strings, sourced from an Argentinian company after an exhaustive search, to get the tone Metheny desired for his idiosyncratic tuning. The striking difference in sound sparked an epiphany that he says, "instantly peeled open a whole new range of possibilities …. this guitar allows me to go deep … to a place that I maybe have never quite gotten to before." Metheny has always been an expressive and emotional player, but an even deeper resonance echoes across the beautifully recorded MoonDial, a collection of originals and carefully chosen covers. The album-defining, title-track opener has his trademark insistent drive and innate melodicism. The song slowly builds, tempos fluctuating around a central theme—all along taking advantage of the baritone guitar's unique fullness. A hushed, graceful ending brings this number to a close. His guitar sounds exquisite on the delicate melody of the Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere." Metheny vigorously strums a skeletal melody on "Shōga," the only track to raise the volume and tempos, and effectively combines "Everything Happens to Me," (first recorded by Frank Sinatra in the 1940s) and Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere" from West Side Story into a leisurely paced mash-up. With his fertile imagination and new instrument, Metheny even brings novel dimensions to "Londonderry Air," the traditional Irish melody on which "Danny Boy" is based. With MoonDial, Pat Metheny has expanded the scope of his solo sound.

After 2023's Dream Box, Pat Metheny embarked on a long solo tour, during which he experimented with a new guitar built for him by luthier Linda Manzer. The custom baritone utilized nylon strings, sourced from an Argentinian company after an exhaustive search, to get the tone Metheny desired for his idiosyncratic tuning. The striking difference in sound sparked an epiphany that he says, "instantly peeled open a whole new range of possibilities …. this guitar allows me to go deep … to a place that I maybe have never quite gotten to before." Metheny has always been an expressive and emotional player, but an even deeper resonance echoes across the beautifully recorded MoonDial, a collection of originals and carefully chosen covers. The album-defining, title-track opener has his trademark insistent drive and innate melodicism.

After 2023's Dream Box, Pat Metheny embarked on a long solo tour, during which he experimented with a new guitar built for him by luthier Linda Manzer. The custom baritone utilized nylon strings, sourced from an Argentinian company after an exhaustive search, to get the tone Metheny desired for his idiosyncratic tuning. The striking difference in sound sparked an epiphany that he says, "instantly peeled open a whole new range of possibilities …. this guitar allows me to go deep … to a place that I maybe have never quite gotten to before." Metheny has always been an expressive and emotional player, but an even deeper resonance echoes across the beautifully recorded MoonDial, a collection of originals and carefully chosen covers. The album-defining, title-track opener has his trademark insistent drive and innate melodicism.

After 2023's Dream Box, Pat Metheny embarked on a long solo tour, during which he experimented with a new guitar built for him by luthier Linda Manzer. The custom baritone utilized nylon strings, sourced from an Argentinian company after an exhaustive search, to get the tone Metheny desired for his idiosyncratic tuning. The striking difference in sound sparked an epiphany that he says, "instantly peeled open a whole new range of possibilities …. this guitar allows me to go deep … to a place that I maybe have never quite gotten to before." Metheny has always been an expressive and emotional player, but an even deeper resonance echoes across the beautifully recorded MoonDial, a collection of originals and carefully chosen covers. The album-defining, title-track opener has his trademark insistent drive and innate melodicism.

Legendary American guitarist, composer, improviser and 20-time Grammy winner Pat Metheny announces the release of his latest album MoonDial on July 26th via BMG.