Tag Archives: Benmont Tench

Benmont Tench – ‘The Melancholy Season’ LP Finally To Be Released

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Those interested in the Beatle-related label Dark Horse Records will know that the Benmont Tench LP, The Melancholy Season has been something of a mystery in the catalogue. People seemed to know about its existence for a couple of years now, but exactly when it would see the light of day has remained a complete unknown. Until now.

The long-awaited album has finally been officially announced and assigned a release date of March 7 – on LP, CD and digital download.

Nearly fifty years ago keyboardist Tench was one of the three founding members (along with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell) of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and he stayed with that legendary band right the way through.

The Melancholy Season is only his second solo album and Tench “couldn’t be happier” about finding a home for the record at Dark Horse, describing it as “an emotionally resonant label for me” through Petty’s close friendship with George Harrison. “I met George maybe three times. But I have that connection through Dhani to his dad, through Tom to George. And they have George’s music, Cat Stevens, Joe Strummer – these are writers. To be in that company, it’s perfect.”

The Melancholy Season is available in physical form for pre-order on Limited Edition blue vinyl (through Tench’s official store):

On standard black vinyl:

And on CD:

Benmont Tench has just released an official video of the first single from the new record. It’s the title track, “The Melancholy Season”.

The LP, CD and digital download are out on March 7.

Also, as an aside in case you’re wondering about the striking artwork used on the cover, it’s a painting from around 1907 called Fisherman’s Cottage by Norwegian neo romantic artist, Harald Oskar Sohlberg (1869 – 1935). It suits the album title perfectly!

Harrison Estate and Dark Horse Sign Further Publishing and Album Release Deals with BMG

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You might recall that back in 2020 the mega music distributor and publisher BMG announced that it had formed a multi-faceted, worldwide distribution partnership with Dark Horse Records, the George Harrison-founded record label now led by his son, Dhani Harrison.

Well, there have been some developments.

Last week there was a rather intriguing press release from BMG announcing that they’ve now secured the publishing rights to the entire George Harrison song catalogue, including his Beatle, solo, and Traveling Wilbury compositions.

Plus the company has secured the rights to distribute some existing – and additional – interesting legacy artists on the the Dark Horse record label.

Here’s the official 2-page press release. We’ve highlighted those bits that grabbed our attention:

So, while there’ll be new publishing deals being done by BMG/Dark Horse for George Harrison’s compositions, it also looks like we can expect a range of interesting physical releases on the Dark Horse label.

These will include another EP from Billy Idol, and the new studio album from former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench. There’s also likely to be a slew of back-catalogue re-issues from the great Leon Russell.

Interesting times indeed.

See also our articles on the six BMG/Dark Horse Records already released so far: Joe Strummer’s Assembly LP, Billy Idol’s The Roadside EP, the Billy Idol Happy Holidays Christmas album, Ravi Shankar’s Chants of India LP, and Joe Strummer’s two Record Store Day 12″ singles: ‘Junco Partner’ and ‘Johnny Appleseed’.