By Jim Rowland
It may be fair to say that the name of Benmont Tench, legendary keyboard player and founding member of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, may not be as well known as the huge roster of legendary artists he has worked with over the years, especially when that diverse roster includes Stevie Nicks, Willie Nelson, Alanis Morissette, Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond, The Replacements, The Screaming Trees, John Prine, Waylon Jennings, John Fogerty, Elvis Costello, the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash… That’s some list. Now Tench takes centre stage himself with the release of his second solo album ‘The Melancholy Season’ on Dark Horse Records.
Dark Horse Records itself was founded by George Harrison in 1974 and has been revived by Harrison’s son Dhani , and will see many classic Dark Horse albums returned to print under this new deal, along with brand new albums such as this.
With Benmont Tench’s pedigree, you can be assured of at least two things here – the music will be of the highest quality, and so will the keyboard playing, on Tench’s staple of piano and organ. Both as present and correct here. As the title may allude to, ‘The Melancholy Season’ is laid back, warming, late night music, on occasion a little dark. Across the album there are echoes of some of the artists he has worked with such as Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Tom Petty, and aside from those, perhaps hints of the likes of Nick Cave, Tom Waits and as is the case on the strumming Americana of ‘Like Crystal’, the great JJ Cale.
There’s a fair few flavours thrown together across the album’s 13 tracks, from the boogie piano rock’n’roll of ‘Rattle’, the up-tempo soulful rock of ‘Pledge’ and the jazz-flavoured ‘Not Enough’ to the mellow piano blues of ‘Wobbles’ and ‘You, Again’ and the delicate acoustic guitar of ‘Under The Starlight’ and the wonderful Dylan-esque ‘Dallas’. Other highlights for me are the epic sounding ‘I Will Not Follow You Down’ and the slinky, soulful groove of ‘Back’.
Coming along a good decade after his solo debut, ‘The Melancholy Season’ is an assured and impressive album that reflects Benmont Tench’s seasoned pedigree. Pour yourself a large whiskey, put your feet up, and soak this one in.
- ‘The Melancholy Season’ is released today (Friday 7 March).
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