Chris Pellnat – “Reign Down”

Chris Pellnat just put out a six-song folk-rock EP titled Reign Down. He plays guitar in a Poughkeepsie rock band, but his solo music goes in some unexpected directions.

The title track, Reign Down, is a driving, minor-key rock song featuring a blend of vibraphone and organ. The title is a play on words. It tackles the desire to be showered in the rain of love while looking for love to universally rule the world. You can tell he spent the last two years processing a lot of heavy things. The songs bounce between a sense of despair or anger at the evil in the world, and a stubborn hope that we can overcome it.

Before this, Chris was collaborating with singers from Morocco and Japan, pushing himself way out of his comfort zone. This project brings things back to English lyrics, but he kept his signature weirdness completely intact. He mixes electric rock with instruments you do not hear every day, like dulcimer, clarinet, accordion, and slide guitar. Chasing Love sounds like a disquieting spiritual, while The Heart Sees More finishes the record as a lush space ballad. It is accessible but wonderfully offbeat.

Head over to his social media pages to follow his work and see what else he creates in the rest of this year.