You Should Be So Lucky

It’s only fitting that Benmont Tench (best known as Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ keyboardist) would slip in a smooth organ solo for “Veronica Said” and find plenty more places for his piano and organ to stand out from the rest. His solo debut album comes only 38 years after Tom Petty’s first album, and it’s evident that Tench learned much about the music he loves in those years. Legendary producer Glyn Johns recorded this album to tape at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, and musicians Don Was, Ethan Johns, Ryan Adams, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Tom Petty, and Ringo Starr all showed up for Tench, who's also worked as a session musician for Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, U2, The Cult, and Jackson Browne. Tench wrote the songs here, which range from the instrumental “Ecor Rouge” to the classic singer/songwriter moves “Veronica Said” and “Hannah Hannah,” with a turn at the folk traditional “Corrina, Corrina” and at Bob Dylan and Robert Hunter’s recent “Duquesne Whistle.” Tench’s voice is rough and warm, showing its limits but reveling within them.