Benmont Tench, keyboardist for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, has announced The Melancholy Season, his first new solo album in over a decade. Along with the announcement, he has unveiled the title track and 2025 tour dates.
Produced by Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Margo Price, Dawes), The Melancholy Season will arrive on March 7th via Dark Horse Records. It features 13 songs with contributions from Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, and singer-songwriter Jenny O. It will be his first full-length release since his 2014 solo debut, You Should Be So Lucky. Pre-orders are ongoing.
Ahead of the arrival of The Melancholy Season, Tench will preview the songs at his upcoming residency in New York at the Café Carlyle slated for February 18th through 22nd. After that, he’ll hit the road for a handful of West Coast tour dates, stopping in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and other cities. Check out the full list of his upcoming shows below, and get tickets here.
As for the single “The Melancholy Season,” it arrives today with a music video directed by Chloe Bader, showing Tench playing the ballad from behind the keyboard of a Steinway. Lyrically, it revolves around a feeling of “alienation” between spouses on a cold night under the stars, with lyrics like, “Between the opening of our eyes/ And the last time that we close them/ What would I give to turn the track/ Of time to match our traces.”
Setting the scene in a statement, Tench said the song was “about a guy looking across the backyard at his wife by the pool. She’s about to kick off her shoes. It’s cold, the pool is heated and the steam is rising off the water. The idea was the alienation between these two people.”
As for the title of the song and album, Tench explained, “At the house where I lived for many years, in the hills overlooking the San Fernando Valley, Orion was only visible in the fall and winter. I associated the constellation with that time: ‘Oh, there’s my friend.’ But that season, when it starts getting cold in California, has always been a bit melancholy to me.”
Watch the music video for “The Melancholy Season” below.
The Melancholy Season Artwork:
The Melancholy Season Tracklist:
01. The Melancholy Season
02. Pledge
03. Rattle
04. Not Enough
05. If She Knew
06. I Will Not Follow You Down
07. Under the Starlight
08. Back
09. Like Crystal
10. Wobbles
11. You, Again
12. The Drivin’ Man
13. Dallas
Benmont Tench 2025 Tour Dates:
02/18 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
02/19 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
02/20 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
02/21 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
02/22 – New York, NY @ Café Carlyle
03/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo
03/19 – Los Angeles, CA @ Largo
04/02 – Ojai, CA @ Ojai Playhouse
04/04 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Kuumbwa
04/05 – San Francisco, CA @ The Independent
04/08 – Seattle, WA @ Triple Door
04/09 – Portland, OR @ Old Church
04/11 – Grass Valley, CA @ Center for the Arts
04/12 – Sonoma, CA @ Sebastiani Theatre