The Parkersburg News & Sentinel
July 31, 2021
Jess Mancini

PITTSBURGH — A Tyler County native who has overcome adversities in life has released a new album.

“Shades of Indigo” is Bradley Scott Malone’s second album, but the first with Vault Records based in Pittsburgh.

Malone, 52, who works in the energy industry in Pittsburgh, is the son of Pat and Marilyn Malone of Friendly. He has been in Pittsburgh since the 1990s.

Malone will perform in a one-man free show at 7 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Gold Derrick Gallery in the downstairs theater at the Gaslight Theater on Wells Street in Sistersville. Tickets are not required, but seating may be limited.

His genre is folk and Americana and his music is described in the style of John Prine, Jim Croce, Don McLean, Mandolin Orange, The Avett Brothers and Gregory Alan Isakov.

He served in the U.S. Air Force toward the end of the Gulf War and was assigned to Tops in Blue, which entertained the troops. Malone was kicked out of the Tops in Blue because of alcoholism and chronic depression, sinking further when he lost an opportunity with a major label record, he said.

Those were the darkest days, but he’s turned his life around since then. The EP “Shades of Indigo” is indicative of that, he said.

“A lot of my music reflects this status of my life right now,” Malone said.

“Shades of Indigo” includes the nostalgic “Freckles” and two songs about veterans.

The title track and “My Name Is Neville” are his tributes to his military experiences. The title refers to the color of the Marine dress blues uniform,and the song is loosely based on Malone’s experience with an Iraq war veteran.

“I have encountered soldiers who were put in circumstances that would have put me in a rubber room, and yet they survived and managed to put their lives back together despite the discrimination and indifference they face coming back here,” Malone said. “That compelled me to write about them.”

“Shades of Indigo” is critical of the post-war reception of veterans and their struggles, he said.

“This song is written from the perspective of another person standing in a food bank line and striking up a conversation with the vet protagonist,” Bradley said. “This soldier was discharged with significant PTSD issues and denied employment by multiple employers out of fear of those problems.”

Malone is a 1987 graduate of the former Sistersville High School and attended Fairmont State University. His first EP was “Eighty In the Rain” released in 2017.

He has also written a book, “What Would Grandpa Do?” that was released in June.