Founding Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench will release his second solo album, The Melancholy Season, on March 7. The 13-track collection follows Tench’s solo debut, You Should Be So Lucky, which came out in 2014.
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The new album was produced by Jonathan Wilson, the guitarist in Roger Waters’ touring band, whose previous production work has included projects by Father John Misty, Margo Price, Billy Strings, and Dawes.
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The Melancholy Season features guest appearances by Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, singer/songwriter Jenny O, and Soul Coughing bassist Sebastian Steinberg.
Tench has released The Melancholy Season’s title song as an advance digital track. A companion music video for the introspective piano-driven ballad has debuted at Benmont’s official YouTube channel. The clip features Tench performing the song on a dark stage at the Los Angles theater The Cat’s Crawl.
The Melancholy Season can be pre-ordered now.
More About The Melancholy Season Album
An in-depth look at The Melancholy Season has been posted at BenmontTench.com. The album is being released on Dark Horse Records, the label founded by George Harrison, and now overseen by the late Beatles guitarist’s son, Dhani, and widow, Olivia.
Tench’s core backing band for the recorded was Goldsmith on guitar and Wilson on drums and other instruments.
Watkins contributed a guest vocal to the closing song, “Dallas.” Steinberg plays bass on a track titled “You, Again,” and is the only musician on that tune besides Benmont.
Tench began writing “Under the Starlight” about 20 years ago in a collaboration with Grammy-winning songwriter Don Henry. He finally finished the tune by adding two new verses penned, he says, with “the knowledge I’d gained about living since Don and I started writing it.”
The Melancholy Season also features an updated version of “Wobbles,” which appeared as an instrumental on Benmont’s first album, You Should Be So Lucky. The new version features lyrics he wrote for the tune after it was originally recorded.
More About Benmont Tench
Tench began playing with Tom Petty in 1972, when joined Petty’s pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch. Benmont was a member of The Heartbreakers from the group’s inception in 1976 until Tom’s passing in 2017.
Tench was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Petty & the Heartbreakers in 2002. For decades, Benmont also has been an in-demand session musician. Among the many famous artists whose albums he’s played on are The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, The Who, Don Henley, Aretha Franklin, Warren Zevon, Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne, Johnny Cash Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Ringo Starr, and Chris Stapleton.
Tench’s 2025 Concert Plans
Tench will preview songs from The Melancholy Season during a five-night engagement, February 18-22, at Café Carlyle in New York City. The concerts will feature Benmont performing solo on piano.
After the album’s release, Tench has eight more shows scheduled on the West Coast, running from a March 12 concert at the famed Largo club in Los Angeles through an April 12 gig in Sonoma, California. His itinerary also includes performances in San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon.
Tickets for Tench’s shows are available now via various outlets, including StubHub.
The Melancholy Season Track List:
- “The Melancholy Season”
- “Pledge”
- “Rattle”
- “Not Enough”
- “If She Knew”
- “I Will Not Follow You Down”
- “Under the Starlight”
- “Back”
- “Like Crystal”
- “Wobbles”
- “You, Again”
- “The Drivin’ Man”
- “Dallas”
Benmont Tench’s 2025 Tour Dates:
February 18 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
February 19 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
February 20 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
February 21 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
February 22 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
March 12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo
March 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo
April 2 – Ojai, CA @ Ojai Playhouse
April 4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Kuumbwa
April 5 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
April 8 – Seattle, WA @ Triple Door
April 9 – Portland, OR @ Old Church
April 11 – Grass Valley, CA @ Center for the Arts
April 12 – Sonoma, CA @ Sebastiani Theatre
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