He spent decades backing Tom Petty, but on his current tour, which stops at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center April 4, Benmont Tench appears alone with a piano.
He’s promoting his new album, The Melancholy Season, a minimalist affair that grows warmly on the listener after several plays.
It’s his first album in a decade. His last album, 2014’s You Should Be So Lucky, “had much more production and collaborators—this time I went minimalist, as possible. I didn’t have to compromise.”
“I love collaboration,” he adds, “but this one is more me, along with some special friends.”
The album is produced by Jonathan Wilson, a three-time Grammy nominee who tours as a guitarist with Roger Waters, and has a knack for producing a magically eclectic roster that includes Father John Misty, Margo Price and Billy Strings. Tench is a welcome addition. The album is a perfect centerpiece to the chaotic world in which we live. A troubadour in search of his people.
Weaving through California on this rare solo adventure, Tench is only accompanied onstage by a piano. But The Melancholy Season shines with performances by Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek), Sebastian Sternberg (Fiona Apple) and singer-songwriter, Jenny O.
It’s been obvious for decades that Tench’s talent was bigger than the Diamond-selling Heartbreakers. Tench has performed with everyone from Stevie Nicks to Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash to the Rolling Stones. His journey is a true American tale, rising from the swampy marshes of Florida to the world’s largest stages.
Florida is often maligned for a number of valid reasons. Bath salts, face-eating, dangling chads and volumes of Weird News that implicate the Sunshine State as, uhm, odd. But it’s also the birthplace of this journalist’s personal nomination for the Greatest American Rock and Roll Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Back in 1969, the Gainesville Raceway opened, hosting the Gatornationals and bringing corndogs to the masses.
That same year, the nascent Allman Brothers played the Gainesville High School auditorium, where a young Gregg Allman blew everyone away. And almost as an afterthought, emerging from the muck, covered in uck, was a band called Mudcrutch.
The band became a Gainesville sensation, even hosting a Mudcrutch Festival at their home. Mudcrutch was a regional success story. And in 1970, bands traveled west to “make it big.”
“New York City was too cold, so we headed to California,” says Tench.
Culture shock awaited the longhairs from Gainesville in Los Angeles. And according to Tench, “I don’t think I finally felt comfortable in Los Angeles until 1995.” But that early move did warrant a record deal. “We got signed to Leon Russell’s label,” Tench says. “But it went nowhere and led to the band breaking up. Which I was very sad about. Of course, it did also lead to the Heartbreakers.”
In what could be one of the happiest accidents of the 1970s, three members of Mudcrutch—Mike Campbell, Tom Petty and Tench—went on to form an American institution that would produce 13 studio albums, 80 million units and a lot of gold.
Remove all the glitz and glam of the house that Petty built, and Tench’s The Melancholy Season is a skeleton key to the mansion. The album’s title isn’t kidding; it’s a melancholy treat to hear Tench’s aged (like fine wine) voice singing his own tunes. Don’t expect the Heartbreakers, and you’ll be surprised as the 88s wash over you. The album is atmospheric, a reflection of one of Dylan’s later albums. Perhaps it’s no wonder, as the Heartbreakers were Dylan’s back-up band for two years during his True Confessions Tour.
“Working with Bob changed the way not only I looked at music, but the whole band’s direction changed after that tour. Bob’s genius is that he doesn’t lecture you, he just plays and you try to keep up,” Tench says.
It does seem like The Melancholy Season has opened up for all of us. And while spring is springing—there’s a ghost of sadness appearing between the cracks. Luckily, Tench is a master guide, showing us the hope that remains in our souls.
Benmont Tench plays at 7:30pm on April 4 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320-2 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. Doors open at 6:45pm for the all-ages show. Tickets: $42–$45. folkyeah.com
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