Benmont Tench Album Mastered at Bernie Grundman’s

Los Angeles, CA (February 18, 2025)—The Melancholy Season is the upcoming solo effort by keyboard legend Benmont Tench, best known as a foundering member of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Due out March 7 on Dark Horse Records, the collection was recently mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, CA.

Produced by Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Margo Price, Billy Strings) and featuring performances by Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek), singer/songwriter Jenny O. and Sebastian Steinberg (Fiona Apple, Iron and Wine, Soul Coughing), the album will be the focus of Tench’s residency this week at New York’s famed Café Carlyle, running February 18-22. Tench will also tour across the west coast this spring, with stops including two nights at Largo in Los Angeles as well as The Independent in San Francisco, the Triple Door in Seattle, Portland’s Old Church and more.

The album’s title track, “The Melancholy Season,” debuts alongside the 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 signaled the coming of colder weather, and the emotional change that came with it.”