BY: DIGITAL WAX MEDIA STAFF

 

Singer, songwriter, and musician Benmont Tench has released a brand new track, “The Melancholy Season” – the first single from the newly announced upcoming album of the same name.

 

Perhaps best known for his time as a Heartbreaker, backing up bandmates like Tom Petty and Mike Campbell on the keys, Tench is also an established solo artist, having released his studio debut, You Should Be So Lucky through Blue Note Records in 2014. The warmly received project would be Tench’s last as a solo act for over a decade. But the dry spell has been brought to a decisive conclusion this week with the release of the timely new single, “The Melancholy Season.”

 

Produced by the masterful Jonathan Wilson and slated for release through George Harrison’s Dark Horse Records, The Melancholy Season is scheduled to be released next month on March 7, 2025. The album, according to Tench, will feature a number of guest features, including Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Jenny O., and singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, I’m with Her, and solo fame.

 

Lead-off single and title track, “The Melancholy Season” opens with sparse piano chords upon which the vocal is introduced. The first verse of the tune is purely lead vocal with piano accompaniment, with additional instrumentation dropping for verse two which immediately follows.

 

 

Sonically, this track has producer Jonathan Wilson’s fingerprints all over it. The multi-instrumentalist has a particularly effectual touch when it comes to piano-based music, as evidenced by his fantastic work on Father John Misty’s third studio album, 2017’s Pure Comedy. Wilson himself was confirmed to be sitting in as a member of Tench’s touring band behind Tench’s upcoming full-length album.

 

“I don’t like crowded records,” Tench says of his own sonic preferences, citing the minimalist trio configurations of records such as John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band as points of reference.  “I wanted that kind of space on this record. I want the words to be heard. And I wanted a certain groove. I thought, ‘Who has an understanding of recording to tape? And produces singer-songwriters? And plays drums?’ Jonathan was all of them.”

 

Lyrically and conceptually, “The Melancholy Season” deals quite literally with the namesake turn in the weather which brings with it an air of gloom and reticence. It’s a phenomenon to which most have grown so accustomed due to the regularity with which it occurs, it can be easy to dismiss what profound effects seemingly routine changes in things like the weather can beget.

 

Tench’s approach to the concept is quite Hemingwayan in its “on-the-nose” simplicity. The less astute listener might be quick dismiss the very literal observations of constellations, shadows, plants, and other conventional images presented throughout the song, but they would be remiss in doing so. Many an individual has experienced the feelings of despondency hinted at within the tune, feelings which can be triggered by the most mundane of sights and occurrences.

 

But in avoiding guiding the horse directly to the water – as it were – and addressing only the surface-level experience in relation to the deep-set emotion behind the experience – the actual subject of the song – Tench allows for a greater nuance and internalization of the notion by the listener as pertaining to his or her own personal experience – see Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory.

 

Perhaps that all sounded like mumbo jumbo, but it’s to convey the idea that, much like Ernest Hemingway in the bulk of his work, Benmont Tench isn’t being overly heavy-handed with the concepts at play here. In popular songwriting, particularly in the modern day, it has become almost customary for an artist to show their entire hand at any and all times – to go right to the top shelf, eschewing any sort of literary or artistic nuance in the process. As such, if you aren’t hitting 80mph right out of the gate, most will assume that your vehicle maxes out at 10mph.

 

But a great lesson that comes only with life experience is that less is more, and this notion is applicable in more ways than one could even imagine. While young men still full of piss and vinegar will generally be inclined to crank the allegorical amp to ten immediately, any seasoned jazzman will tell you that, ultimately, a lighter touch makes for a bigger bang. In exercising restraint in execution, one can reconfigure the barometers to open up entirely new realms of possibility.

 

But in reeling it in with the similes and getting back to the actual music – Tench has revealed that the origins of “The Melancholy Season” actually lie in a poem inspired by the approach of chilly weather beneath the constellation Orion – which is name checked in what would ultimately become the first single from The Melancholy Season.

 

“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,” said Tench of the meditative tune. “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.”

 

Tench did in fact go straight to the top shelf with regard to lyrical inspirations for the project, however, with the pianist citing heavy-hitters such as Bob Dylan, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, John Prine, and many others as having a substantial influence on the songwriting for The Melancholy Season.

 

“The Melancholy Season” is available to stream now, along with an accompanying music video directed by Chloe Badner. Benmont Tench has also announced plans to take the new material on the road and will be performing the following dates:

February 18, 2025: Café Carlyle – New York, New York

 

February 19, 2025: Café Carlyle – New York, New York

 

February 20, 2025: Café Carlyle – New York, New York

 

February 21, 2025: Café Carlyle – New York, New York

 

February 22, 2025: Café Carlyle – New York, New York

 

March 12, 2025: Largo at the Coronet – Los Angeles, California

 

March 19, 2025: Largo at the Coronet – Los Angeles, California

 

April 2, 2025: Ojai Playhouse – Ojai, California

 

April 4, 2025: Kuumbwa Jazz Center – Santa Cruz, California

 

April 5, 2025: The Independent – San Francisco, California

 

April 8, 2025: The Triple Door – Seattle, Washington

 

April 9, 2025: The Old Church Concert Hall – Portland, Oregon

 

April 11, 2025: The Center for the Arts – Grass Valley, California

 

April 12, 2025: Sebastiani Theatre – Sonoma, California