Heartbreaker’ Benmont Tench Visits Milwaukee

Tom Petty’s keyboardist is on his own and on tour,

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Benmont Tench is best known for his long career playing keyboards with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In 2014 he released his solo debut album You Should Be So Lucky. On Friday he stops at Turner Hall Ballroom touring his new album The Melancholy Season.

Tench recently took time to chat from Toronto as his tour heads for the Midwest.

While in the Heartbreakers, Tench was close to the late Howie Epstein, who cut his musical teeth in Milwaukee bands. “My best friends in the Heartbreakers were Howie and Stan [Lynch]. After Stan left the band it was me and Howie all the way. I loved Howie so much.”

Tench recalls playing a gig in Milwaukee when bassist Ron Blair was leaving the band .and they were looking for his replacement. “Howie came in and he knew the song ‘Surrender’ which had never been released—we used to open the shows with it. I have nothing but extreme good feeling for Milwaukee.”

Songs come out the blue

For his new album, Tench takes an analog approach, recording to tape. Working with producer Jonathan Wilson, Tench came up with a collection of songs that breathe like chamber music. “Songs come out the blue and you have to be ready,” he says. Known for his keyboard skills, he writes in his head but also writes on guitar. Some of those understated moments fit the songs perfectly.

“Rattle” is brilliant throwaway reminiscent of Ian McLagen or Alejandro Escovedo. Tench was in NYC, when the rain stopped. He wanted to walk across Central Park for sushi. Stray drops fell on his head and he thought, “there’s a song there. By the time I got across the park I had a most the whole lyric.” In the studio, Wilson came up with a basic tom-tom drum pattern, Taylor Goldsmith helped finish the song and Jenny O. added vocals.

Tench says he thinks he knows what and who songs are about, but as he lives with the songs, they reveal themselves even more. “That’s a lot of the fun, you learn about yourself.”

“Back” suggests a surrealistic origin story; it would fit neatly with Bob Dylan’s recent-era recordings or Tom Waits’ less-manic songs that barely warp convention. “Like Crystal” would be at home on contemporary Americana playlists. Across the album Tench’s weary vocals often recall Ronnie Lane’s solo under-appreciated post-Faces work.

Mr. Tench and Tom Petty

Tench’s father was something of a musician, playing guitar and piano in in combos that gigged around the Caribbean and pre-Castro Cuba. His mother and grandmother played piano. So Benmont’s family knew about the importance of music.

While Benmont was in college, he was in Mudcrutch—the pre-Heartbreakers group. But on this evening he was studying for an economics exam. He got a call from Petty imploring, “What are you doing?”

“I said, ‘You are right.’” After that semester he never went back to school but just came up with excuses when his parents asked.

His parents weren’t happy, but Petty spoke with Mr. Tench. “They were both really persuasive and eloquent. I wasn’t there when they spoke but what I gathered is that Tom simply pointed out to [my parents] that we had a shot. We were really good. We could go out to California, and we had an offer for a record contract. That shot wouldn’t come again but I could go back to school in another year. My father said, ‘Yeah.’” Tench says it is also a testament to how much his parents believed in his abilities.