Harry Dean doesn’t consider himself a fantasy writer.

The lead vocalist-guitarist for Harry Dean and The Dusty Boys assumed a fictional persona while penning the country-rock trio’s latest single, “Gone By Dawn.”

“For the longest time, I was writing only from my own experiences,” said Dean, who’s based in Grand Rapids, Michigan with guitarist Lee Vanderkolk and drummer Tyler Mazurek.

“One of my favorite writers, Zach Bryan, has multiple songs where he is making up stories about fictional characters, and I thought that was an awesome concept.”

With a concept in mind for “Gone by Dawn,” Dean landed on a man out west who meets a mysterious woman one night. They share a passionate night at a hotel before going their separate ways the next day.

“I never had that one passionate night,” he said. “I have been with my wife since we were juniors in high school and we got married in June of 2023.”

Harry Dean and The Dusty Boys instantly brings that passionate night to life in “Gone by Dawn” through fearless electric guitar, enthusiastic acoustic guitar, driving bass and thumping drums.

Dean sings, “She might look good in my shirt / And I knew this wouldn’t work / But oh it felt so right / That mysterious girl / She might have stolen my world / Even if only for one night.”

“It was a lot of fun for me to step out of my comfort zone and write a story that was pure fantasy to me,” he said. “We are really proud of how this story came along.”

I recently spoke to Dean about his background, the formation of Harry Dean and The Dusty Boys, the band’s 2023 EP and latest single, upcoming live shows and future plans.

Q: How has your 2024 been so far? What’s been inspiring you lately?

A: 2024 has been a refreshing phase for us as a band. With fewer shows during the winter months, we have had time to refocus and re-energize ourselves. This lets us take inspiration from lots of spaces around us.

For me, my inspiration has always been music. While I listen to mostly country music and love following the changing landscape of it, I have fallen in love with John Mayer again. His music challenges me to write songs that are more challenging vocally and take a look at how I structure my songs.

On top of that, his music challenges me to improve at guitar. He is one of the greatest musicians of our generation, and I think that no matter what genre you are working in, he can teach us a lot.

Q: How did your musical journey start while growing up in Grand Rapids? At what age did you start playing guitar, singing and writing songs? What artists inspired you along the way?

A: I grew up in a household that had a love for music. My dad spent most of his college and young adult years working in record stores like Believe in Music, Karma Records and a bunch more. He exposed my brother and me to lots of incredible bands from the ‘70s like The Who, Boston, AC/DC and his favorite, Steely Dan. My mom’s musical taste was all country all the time. She gave us lots of George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker and my childhood favorite, Rascal Flatts.

In my younger years, I fell in love with everything country music and it wasn’t until my young adult years that I gained an appreciation for rock ‘n’ roll from my dad. I sang in choir all through school and always loved singing. I learned guitar initially through an introductory class during my freshman year of high school in 2011.

Then I put down the guitar for about five years or so just to pick it up and relearn it in the summer of 2016. I relearned everything on YouTube and started playing my favorite country songs on guitar. I dragged that guitar around my different college houses at Michigan State University for a few years and picked it up a little bit more here and there as I had time.

My first song wasn’t written until I started my first band with my drummer Tyler [Mazurek] and my friend Gage called The Scratch Offs during COVID in 2020. We spent about a year and a half practicing and playing for friends as The Scratch Offs. We grew a lot together and stumbled our way through writing plenty of songs. It was an awesome stepping stone in my music career that launched me to where I am today with The Dusty Boys.

Q: How and when did you come to meet Lee Vanderkolk (lead guitar), Tyler Mazurek (drums) and Liz Rohling (bass) to form The Dusty Boys? How do they each contribute to the band’s sound? How does the band’s name represent your music and creative vision?

A: I have known Tyler [Mazurek] since we were kids, and he has always been an awesome drummer. We grew up playing sports together and both graduated from Northview High School in 2015. When COVID came around, Tyler and I decided to start our garage band The Scratch Offs with our buddy Gage as I had mentioned earlier.

After the garage band jam sessions fizzled out, I started my own solo music career playing cover shows around Grand Rapids in different breweries and bars. One day I discovered Lee [Vanderkolk’s] Instagram page where he regularly would post [videos of himself] soloing over top of songs I loved. I thought a lead guitar player would be cool so I saw we had one mutual friend and I slid into Lee’s DMs.

In no time, we were jamming together and he started playing some shows with me as a duo. We had the opportunity to play some full-band shows after a little while so we invited Tyler back in the mix and we started Harry Dean and The Dusty Boys. Our name was just something that came to us one day when we were asked what our band name was. We did not have one at the time and I offered The Dusty Boys and it just stuck.

It represents us dusting off our instruments and throwing together a grungy country-rock band and we loved it. Liz [Rohling] was playing bass with Lee in their church band and the opportunity came for us to add a bass player for a few shows and Liz fit in with us seamlessly. Liz has since moved to Nashville, but we luckily got her tracking bass on all four of our upcoming singles.

Q: What was it like to write, record, and release your debut EP, Late Nights – Live EP, in 2023? How long did you and the band spend recording the EP’s four tracks and your live performances at Dogtown Studio in Grand Rapids? How did Robby Fischer help you take those tracks and videos to the next level?

A: Robby was amazing. He worked with us when we had no idea what our sound was at the time. We just knew we wanted to play bigger and better shows, but we had no content out there. I saw a lot of what Dogtown Studio was putting out so I jumped on the opportunity. We knew we had some songs we loved, so we picked out four songs and we were absolutely thrilled at what Robby was able to put together for us.

We only spent three hours in Dogtown Studio with Robby and we were able to get four awesome live tracks with killer video. All four of those videos can be found on YouTube and the audio is out on Spotify, Apple Music and anywhere else you can listen.

Q: How long did you spend writing and recording “Gone by Dawn?” When and where was it recorded? Who did you collaborate with on the track? How did they help shape its overall sound?

A: How this song came to life is much different than how I have written any of my other songs. For most of my songs, I write by starting with just me and my guitar. Then I take it to the band and we give it life. This song started with a jam session that Tyler [Mazurek] and Lee [Vanderkolk] were having during a short break in one of our practices.

They just started jamming out with the melody that you hear through the song, and when I walked downstairs, I just blurted out, “She grew up in Cali.” We all stopped at that moment and we thought we might have had something.

I recorded those guys jamming that melody over and over again and then I took my recording to the Secretary of State appointment the next morning. While waiting in that long line, I just listened to the jam track and I wrote the story of “Gone by Dawn.”

The song was called “Cali” up until we got it recorded with Greg Baxter at Second Story Sound in Grand Rapids. We had an awesome time and Greg made the song sound larger than life with his mixing and mastering of it. We then rethought the title and we decided that the line, “Gone by Dawn,” was a good representation of the story itself.

Q: You’re playing several live shows, including February 22 at Beer City Bread Co. in Grand Rapids, February 23 at Brickyard Tavern in Grand Rapids, March 1 at Saugatuck Brewing in Douglas and March 22 at Butcher Block Social in Caledonia. What plans do you have for these shows? What will your sets be like? Will anyone else be joining you on stage for these shows?

A: These shows are all between two and three hours of pure Dusty Boys magic as we play a mixture of cover songs from bands like Third Eye Blind, Zach Bryan, Matchbox Twenty and a lot of classic country songs. We like to throw our handful of originals in there as well.

Beer City, Brickyard Tavern and Saugatuck Brewing will all be solo shows where you can come hear me jam out and request all of your favorite songs. Our show at Butcher Block Social will be an awesome spot to showcase our next single, “Close to My Chest.” This will be a full-band show and our first time playing at the venue.

Q: You’re planning to release several new singles, including “Close to My Chest,” “My God Madi” and “Enough.” When do you plan to release each of them? How does the release of “Gone by Dawn” help set the tone thematically and sonically for these tracks? What role does Lauren Hendrick play in each of these songs?

A: After the release of “Gone by Dawn,” we plan to release all of these songs as singles approximately one month apart. “Close to My Chest” will be released March 22 and then “My God Madi” and “Enough” will follow after that. “Gone by Dawn” sets the tone of all of these releases as upbeat and fun tunes. Our music is meant to be listened to live and this is the perfect song to turn up in the car on a summer drive.

Lauren is a good friend of mine who I have known for a long time. She has the most beautiful voice so it only made sense to invite her to sing “Close to My Chest” with me. More about that song will be coming soon, but Lauren is so talented and we look forward to more awesome collaborations with her in the future. Lauren has some of her own songs coming out this year so keep your ears and your eyes open.

Q: What else is up next for you and the band later this year? Any plans to release another EP or a full-length album?

A: We are in a transition phase with our live shows right now. I am working through booking fewer solo shows and focusing on the next chapter that is in front of us as a band. We are looking forward to playing more shows as a full band and are looking for opportunities to collaborate and open up for other bands around town.

We are playing our first festival this year in Grand Haven at Walk The Beat. We are super-pumped for this and all of the other opportunities that will come our way when we start rolling out all this new music.

Our plan now is to release these four tracks one at a time throughout the next few months. We are also looking forward to getting back in the studio soon and recording some new originals along with a two-song live video session that we will be dropping this summer as well. A lot more to come for us and we could not be more excited for the band’s future.