The Garden (Michael Nesmith Album)

The Garden (Michael Nesmith Album)

The Garden is Michael Nesmith's 11th full studio album and was released in 1994. The Garden is a companion release to Nesmith's 1974 album/book, The Prison. Both The Garden and The Prison are written to have the music complement a novel included in the release (also written by Nesmith). The Prison and The Garden were re-released together on CD in 2004 by Video Ranch.

The idea is for listeners to read the novel while simultaneously listening to the recording. Even though The Garden was released on Nesmith's record company, Rio Records, the novella/album concept was the driving force behind Nesmith's multimedia company Pacific Arts.

In the liner notes, Nesmith states The Garden is not a sequel in the strictest sense of the term — meaning that there isn't a true continuation of the narrative which began in The Prison. Instead, they are correlated thematically and stylistically as both are presented in a linear and consecutive approach. Each of The Garden's seven chapters are also visually enhanced, if not somewhat inspired by a series of Claude Monet paintings. There is a much more subtle connection between the prose and these unqualified masterworks, yet he is able to relate them in a contextual sense.