Benmont Tench – The Melancholy Season
Benmont Tench doesn’t name his pianos as such, but he lovingly distinguishes each of the keyboards he plays on his latest album. “Mr Tench’s piano” is a Steinway B. So is “the Village Recorder’s piano” used in the eponymous studio. “Mr Wilson’s piano”, belonging to producer Jonathan Wilson, is a 1913 Steinway A3. You get to know all these keyboard characters and more on The Melancholy Season, the gorgeous, heart-warming second solo album by a musician better known as a sought-after Los Angeles session player and lifetime member of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. THE JUNE 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW: STARRING R.E.M., A DOORS RARITIES CD, BON IVER, PRINCE, SHACK, AMY WINEHOUSE, DIRE STRAITS, STEREOLAB AND MORE Advertisement Benjamin Montmorency Tench III’s artistic alliance with Petty stretches back to the early ’70s in their native Florida. He was a founding member of the Heartbreakers, collaborating joyfully across the decades until Petty’s untimely death in 2017 put a full stop on the band just as they had rounded off their 40th-anniversary tour. Since the early ’80s, he has also applied “the Tench touch” to countless records and sessions, starting with Stevie Nicks’ solo debut Bella Donna… Read More →





















