BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

HUNTINGTON — Alan “Corduroy” Brown is set to release his new EP “Rest” on Feb. 1. The record features five original songs and will be streaming everywhere.

The EP finds the Huntington-based “feel-good pop-rock” artist departing from his typical high-energy full-band sound for a moment of rest, as the name implies. Each track features a single instrument, a guitar or piano, accompanied only by haunting vocals, placing as much emphasis on the lyrics as possible.

But the meaning of the title goes deeper than the production of the record.

Folks familiar with Brown are likely to know he is a strong proponent of mental health and talks openly about his own struggles. While his songs often deal with issues of mental health, “Rest” departs from Brown’s existing discography by diving deep into the darkest parts of the soul.

Several of the songs on “Rest” were born from the aftermath of a near-death experience Brown had after contracting COVID-19 in 2021. After thinking he had mostly recovered from a mild case of coronavirus, Brown suddenly took a turn for the worse. Brown was flown out for emergency medical care, dying in the air, only to be resuscitated and placed on a ventilator.

As the doctors and nurses managed to get Brown’s vitals moving in the right direction, Brown awoke to an outpouring of support from his community, family and friends.

Brown was humbled and inspired by the love his community was sending his way.

“There were literally parades for me around the community and there were TV cameras at my house and there were people throwing benefit concerts and people designed merch to sell and people did all these things and it was unbelievably amazing,” said Brown. “I will never forget that.”

The community’s reaction gave Brown a positive new perspective on life, but unexpectedly, it also pushed some to reveal their true colors. While the majority of people in Brown’s life expressed nothing but relief and gratitude for his recovery, not everyone was so supportive.

“I’ll never forget the person that said, ‘why do all these people even love you?’” Brown revealed that some of his once-friends were unhappy with the support he was receiving and launched a campaign to harm his image.

Brown believes that many of the people who have been in his life the longest have difficulty reconciling his more reckless, hurtful past with who he is today.

“It’s strange because, in all of that, you know, there are always people that want a certain version of you,” Brown said. “They have this image of you like, ‘Oh, well he used to do this,’ or ‘He was this,’ and ‘Well, I knew him when he did this.’”

Brown explained that this was the inspiration behind the first track on “Rest” called “Headstone.” Often we etch someone’s identity in stone, unwilling to change our concept of them.

“The chorus is: ‘I’ve not claimed perfection, simply worn out my welcome,’” said Brown. “I’ve never claimed to be this perfect human who has it all together. And I’m not saying that I haven’t messed up big time in my past, but here’s the headstone. If you want to go ahead and bury me, I’m not gonna stop you.”

Following “Headstone” is a song titled “Secrets,” which focuses on distancing yourself from those past versions of you, allowing yourself to change and grow. The track features Brown singing accompanied by his producer Jeffrey McClelland on piano.

The third track on the record, “Survivor’s Guilt” shifts gears and deals with the darker thoughts and emotions stemming from Brown’s return from the brink of death.

“I’m amazingly grateful, but I’ve also watched my friends die from other things in the meantime since that’s happened. And I can’t help but think like, ‘Why didn’t they get all the attention and love that I got?’” Brown recounted. “I don’t want people to think that I’m ungrateful for everything that happened. But I wish that more people would have gotten to experience that because I felt like I was just so loved by the entire earth, but some people just kind of passed away.

“Like my friend Barry Smith—that’s probably one of the main reasons that I wrote that song—I watched him have cancer and slowly die, and I’m like, ‘Man, he didn’t get all the stuff that I got. He was loved by a lot of people, but like, why am I here and he’s not?’”

The fourth track on the album, “Now You Know” has a little more pep in its step and feels more reminiscent of Roy’s typical releases, but still focuses on our concepts of forging identity and how others struggle to see our intentions and inner lives.

The record closes out with a rerelease of a duet “Watercolors” written by Brown featuring fellow Huntington-area singer Katherine Allen. The song was written before Brown’s near-death experience but fits right in with the rest of the EP. The slow, melancholy tune deals with the same kind of personal transformation that appears as a motif throughout the record.

The song begins with Brown singing, “I dream in color, I dream in red.”

“All I could see was red, you know? Everything was so fueled by anger,” said Brown. “And then later in the song, the universe that she’s seeing, she says, ‘I started seeing my dreams in blue.’ Blue is like my favorite color, but it’s also a peaceful color.

“So there’s kind of like a beginning and an end to that where it’s like, all I could see is this, but I can see clearly now.”

Brown explained that the “Rest” he is talking about in the title of the record is a reflective rest. Not a stagnant rest, but a rest from the hustle of life where you focus on your mental health and becoming a better person.

“Let your soul rest for a minute,” said Brown. “You don’t have to do anything for anybody right now.”

“Rest” will be available everywhere music is streamed on Feb. 1. Follow Corduroy Brown on social media to keep up with all his latest releases.