The Melancholy Season, the first solo record in over 10 years from legendary keyboard player and founding member of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Benmont Tench, is out now on Dark Horse Records. The album is produced by Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Margo Price, Billy Strings) and includes performances by Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek), singer-songwriter Jenny O., and Sebastian Steinberg (Fiona Apple, Iron and Wine, Soul Coughing). Stream/purchase The Melancholy Season HERE.
In celebration of the new release, Tench is sharing the album’s second single, “Under The Starlight,” alongside a new music video. Of the song, Tench comments, “I wrote ‘Under The Starlight’ with the wonderful Donald Henry. Long after it was completed, I came across this quote from Lao Tzu, which one might find both comforting and perhaps not: ‘Tao endures. The body dies. There is no danger.’” Stream/share the video HERE.
Tench recently shared the album’s title track with a video directed by Chloe Badner (Caroline Polachek); stream/share the video HERE.
Tench just completed a residency at New York’s famed Café Carlyle, which he follows this spring with a tour across the West Coast, including two nights at Largo in Los Angeles, as well as stops at The Independent in San Francisco, The Triple Door in Seattle, Portland’s Old Church, and more. See below for a complete list of dates. Tickets for all tour dates are available at benmonttench.com. Tench will also be performing at People Have the Power: A Celebration of Patti Smith at Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 26, alongside Michael Stipe, Matt Berninger (The National), Courtney Barnett, Sharon Van Etten, and many others. Additional info is HERE.
With a career spanning five decades, Tench is celebrated as one of contemporary music’s finest keyboardists, renowned for his exceptional work on the organ and piano.
Tench has not only shaped the sound of the Heartbreakers but has also contributed to an impressive array of recordings with a diverse roster of artists, including Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson, Alanis Morissette, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, The Chicks, The Replacements, John Prine, Waylon Jennings, John Fogerty, Elvis Costello, The Rolling Stones, and Johnny Cash.
BENMONT TENCH
THE MELANCHOLY SEASON
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
TOUR DATES
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—The Triple Door
April 9—Portland, OR—Old Church
April 11—Grass Valley, CA—Center for the Arts
April 12—Sonoma, CA—Sebastiani Theatre
