cLabs: MethenyAudioArchiveProject

Update - 7/24/06: The PMG Companion, Volume 2 (1981 - 1982), has just been released and is currently being seeded from etree.org. See link below.

Pat Metheny is one of a gaggle of other artists who doesn't object to fans trading audience recordings of his concerts, so long as it is all done without monies and any commercially released material.

Sometime early in the 21st century, a group of Pat Metheny Group fans from the (now defunct) pat-metheny Yahoo! Groups group (group, group, group and spam) started gathering together some of the more quality audience recordings, polishing them with some mastering efforts and releasing them for the betterment of the fans, under the name of MAAP, the Metheny Audio Archive Project.

For a while, it was hosted at http://mas-alla.com, but sometime in 2004 that website went away. As I've been a fan that's benefitted from their efforts, I'm throwing together this page in an effort to gather together some of the information about MAAP until such time as the old web site returns.

The best way to get information about the project is to subscribe to the pat-metheny2 Yahoo! group (the original pat-metheny list was banished sometime in the summer of 2004 due to an unfortunate bit of legal hooha) and ask amongst the locals.

If you are BitTorrent savvy, then some of the shows can be had that way, though you'll most likely need to scare up a seeder if there's not an active torrent going. Below are links to the torrents/shows that I'm aware of [thanks to Eric Thiessen for some of the info]:

Project Torrent Info Description
MAAP 1 ?? Onkel Pos, Hamburg, Germany 7/8/80 [trade]
MAAP 2 ?? A show from the Travels era, Midland Music Hall, Kansas City, MO 7/29/82, that I've only got ripped to vorbis, the original shn torrent I've lost. [trade]
MAAP 3 ?? Neue Fahr, Bremen, Ger. 3/13/78 FM brdcast [trade]
MAAP 4 ?? Roberts Theater, Grinnell, IA 9/24/77 [trade]
MAAP 5 (was hosted at sharingthegroove.org, but the site appears to be down and word is it's been sketchy the last months. I may re-seed over at etree.org). Show from the Imaginary Day tour, 7-21-98, Paul Masson Mountain Winery, Saratoga CA
MAAP 6 Part I (7/8/91 Besancon, France) torrent host at etree.org MAAP 6 is a special entry because it contains soundboard recordings made from the same venues that birthed “The Road to You”, so the recording quality is excellent. AFAIK, MAAP 6 was scheduled for the mas-alla.com site, but never made it up there before the site was gone. I setup the original torrent seed for these shows in Feb 2004 and have re-seeded it on occasion.
MAAP 6 Part II (7/13/91 Marseilles, France) torrent host at etree.org Part 2 of the soundboard recordings that didn't make the cut for “The Road to You”.
The PMG Companion, Volume 1 (1976 - 1980) torrent host at etree.org A fantabulous 3-CD collection of rare stuffs from the beginnings of PMG lovingly put together by Jim Leonard in July 2004, with mastering work done by Charles Fredericks and including original artwork by Ted Foos. “The PMG Companion series (additional volumes to follow) attempts to gather together the many compositions the Pat Metheny Group has performed in its history which have not appeared on commercially available albums by the PMG. Included are unreleased originals, standards and covers, and PMG treatments of material Metheny has released outside the Group.”
The PMG Companion, Volume 2 (1981 - 1982) torrent host at etree.org Subtitled, “The Travels Companion”. “For this volume the criteria were expanded to allow for the inclusion of “bonus tracks” - live versions of songs that do have PMG studio recording counterparts. This approach, if contrary to the ground rules established for Volume 1, made it possible to compile “The Travels Companion.” When you combine this two-disc set with the live double album Travels (recorded at various locations in 1982), you have at your fingertips a commercial quality recording of every piece of music the second lineup of the PMG performed in concert during its remarkably prolific two-year history.”

Project	Torrent Info	Description
MAAP 1	??	Onkel Pos, Hamburg, Germany 7/8/80 [trade]
MAAP 2	??	A show from the Travels era, Midland Music Hall, Kansas City, MO 7/29/82, that I've only got ripped to vorbis, the original shn torrent I've lost. [trade]
MAAP 3	??	Neue Fahr, Bremen, Ger. 3/13/78 FM brdcast [trade]
MAAP 4	??	Roberts Theater, Grinnell, IA 9/24/77 [trade]
MAAP 5	(was hosted at sharingthegroove.org, but the site appears to be down and word is it's been sketchy the last months. I may re-seed over at etree.org).	Show from the Imaginary Day tour, 7-21-98, Paul Masson Mountain Winery, Saratoga CA
MAAP 6 Part I (7/8/91 Besancon, France)	torrent host at etree.org	MAAP 6 is a special entry because it contains soundboard recordings made from the same venues that birthed “The Road to You”, so the recording quality is excellent. AFAIK, MAAP 6 was scheduled for the mas-alla.com site, but never made it up there before the site was gone. I setup the original torrent seed for these shows in Feb 2004 and have re-seeded it on occasion.
MAAP 6 Part II (7/13/91 Marseilles, France)	torrent host at etree.org	Part 2 of the soundboard recordings that didn't make the cut for “The Road to You”.
The PMG Companion, Volume 1 (1976 - 1980)	torrent host at etree.org	A fantabulous 3-CD collection of rare stuffs from the beginnings of PMG lovingly put together by Jim Leonard in July 2004, with mastering work done by Charles Fredericks and including original artwork by Ted Foos. “The PMG Companion series (additional volumes to follow) attempts to gather together the many compositions the Pat Metheny Group has performed in its history which have not appeared on commercially available albums by the PMG. Included are unreleased originals, standards and covers, and PMG treatments of material Metheny has released outside the Group.”
The PMG Companion, Volume 2 (1981 - 1982)	torrent host at etree.org	Subtitled, “The Travels Companion”. “For this volume the criteria were expanded to allow for the inclusion of “bonus tracks” - live versions of songs that do have PMG studio recording counterparts. This approach, if contrary to the ground rules established for Volume 1, made it possible to compile “The Travels Companion.” When you combine this two-disc set with the live double album Travels (recorded at various locations in 1982), you have at your fingertips a commercial quality recording of every piece of music the second lineup of the PMG performed in concert during its remarkably prolific two-year history.”