Benmont Tench Announces New Solo Album

Benmont Tench, legendary keyboard player and founding member of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers is set for the release of his second solo album The Melancholy Season March 7 on Dark Horse Records.

Tench’s first solo effort in over a decade, The Melancholy Season isproduced 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).

Pre-order the record HERE.

In anticipation of the forthcoming release, the album’s title track “The Melancholy Season” is debuting now alongside a video directed by Chloe Badner (Caroline Polachek). Tench notes, “The meaning of the song is subject to every listener’s interpretation, but I will say that the ‘Orion’ in the song is the constellation Orion, whose arrival in the night sky above my old house always signalled the coming of colder weather, and the emotional change that came with it.”

Watch the video HERE.

Benmont Tench “couldn’t be happier” about finding a home for The Melancholy Season at Dark Horse Records, saying ‘It’s an emotionally resonant label for me. And they have George’s music, Cat Stevens, Joe Strummer — these are writers. To be in that company, it’s perfect.”

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, The Screaming Trees, John Prine, Waylon Jennings, John Fogerty, Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash.