Harry Dean understands the impulsive urge to hit the road.

The Grand Rapids, Michigan singer-songwriter explores the desire for wanderlust and adventure on “Feel Alive,” the title track from his debut EP with The Dusty Boys.

“There were these two open mic-ers I had gotten to know in town, and they really did that,” said Dean, the vocalist-guitarist for the country-rock trio, which includes lead guitarist Lee Vanderkolk and drummer Tyler Mazurek.

“They packed up everything and sold a bunch of their stuff, and they hit the road for four or five months. They went and did some busking, played open mics, and tried to pick up gigs. I thought, ‘If I were in that situation, I’d be so scared.’”

Dean channels that fear and courage alongside hopeful acoustic guitar and wistful electric guitar on “Feel Alive.” He sings, “The road’s callin’ and / We’re running steady / Dressed in all black / Jumpin’ in the back / Of that ’84 ole rusted Jimmy / Headed out west / Land we know the best.”

“I have never ditched everything and hit the road. I’ve been with my wife for 12 years now and I’ve lived in Michigan for my whole life,” Dean said.

“It gave me a sense when I put myself there, too, that it would be such a ‘Feel Alive’ moment. I pull things from my life and how I would feel in other people’s lives.”

“Feel Alive” also serves as the energetic opener from Harry Dean and The Dusty Boys’ EP, which features storied lyrics, fiery electric guitar, and driving country-rock instrumentation.

I recently spoke to Dean about Feel Alive ahead of a March 28 show at Turnstiles.

Q: You and the band are eager to get your music out for people to hear. Why did you decide to release an EP instead of a series of singles?

A: I didn’t come up with a theme as a whole for the EP. Each song had a different way it had come about as an idea in my head. I recorded four songs and then [another] four songs about six to eight months later. I didn’t have a planned release and was sitting on music for too long.

I thought, “I want everybody to hear these songs, and I want to market our band and form our sound.” And if I just keep trying to figure out singles, then I’m delaying things. Our main goal is to book gigs that we want and the best way is to have our music out there. And I finally came to that realization and packaged the whole thing into this one EP release, so that we could finally get all the songs that we had been sitting on and got them out there.

Q: Your writing often reflects your life experiences and those of people you know. How do those experiences influence your songwriting?

A: They all are just so different, and I have such different relationships with the songs that I write. I feel a certain way about them, and I always like to hear what songs other people like or what other people think because I have such a warped sense of what these songs mean to me in my head.

“My God Madi” and “Enough,” those two songs in particular, are where I’m taking inspiration directly from my life. I’ve also taken the challenge of looking at other scenarios I see other people in, and writing a song about how I would feel in that case.

Q: “Bottle of Red” examines giving a relationship another try, yet struggling to trust someone again. What sparked this song’s theme about second chances?

A: The idea came into my head originally without being a breakup song or a second chance per se. I wanted to write a song because I felt like I had not challenged myself vocally yet with any of the songs I had written. I said, “I’m setting out right now to write a song that stretches me vocally more than anything else I’ve done.” I started with a melody, and the lyric, “She just brought me a bottle of red,” came out one day. And then I sat down and thought, “I’m going to write a story.” I’ve had ups and downs in relationships—you get that for 12 years—and you put yourself in the [headspace] of working through it. That’s how that one came out.

I thought, “I want to write a song unlike any of my other songs right now.” We’re super happy because there are a few songs where [we] contributed so much to the melody and [how] the songs feel. And this is one of those [songs]. What I wrote versus what we recorded when it was finally said and done was like apples to oranges. I had no idea what they would be able to do with the end of it—it was awesome.

Q: “No Sleep” celebrates staying out all night and running on adrenaline. How did this track become an anthem for being young and carefree?

A: “No Sleep” is based on things I’ve already done. I’ve had a lot of those late nights. This one, how it came to fruition, was I took muse from two different bands. I’ve been a big Zach Bryan fan and he has a song, “Revival”, that he ends all of his shows with every time. I’ve seen him live three times. It [has] this big chorus, and I thought, “I need a song like that where we can finish all of our shows with it.”

It was written to play live because I wanted something like that. And then I got the idea for the song itself from Southhall, and they had a song where I thought the lyrics said, “They don’t need sleep,” but [the song] said, “They don’t need love.” And when I found that out, I said, “Oh, well, I’ll just write the song where they don’t need sleep.” I took the idea of late nights when you’re young and those times at the bar where I’ve had all of those experiences. There have been many times when my wife has called it a night, and I said, “Sorry, babe, I’m staying here.”

Q: Two of the EP’s songs, “No Sleep” and “Enough,” reference being a restless soul. Plus, you’ve released Feel Alive via Restless Soul Records. What’s the significance of the “restless soul” theme for you personally and professionally?

A: While being very stagnant in my location, I’ve had a wanderlust feeling. I say the term, “restless soul,” a lot because someone called me that one time. I have grasped onto that with everything I have, and I’ve used that term in multiple songs. I think two of the songs say that.

When you upload songs [to a distributor], you put if there’s a label that it’s under. You have to put something and most people just put their name and records. I chose Restless Soul Records because I [discovered] there wasn’t one in the United States. I thought, “I don’t think I can get in trouble for this.” I also put that on the T-shirts that we sell.

Q: “My God Madi” is about chasing the woman of your dreams and convincing her to settle down with you. How did your wife, Madi, inspire this track?

A: In our younger days, she was always a wild one. I’ve been chasing her my whole life. At the time, it was eight years—now it’s about 12. That’s the oldest written song of the ones I’ve put out. I’ve had that one written for three or four years now. I had to write a song about that. I love the Turnpike Troubadours, and they have a song, “Good Lord Lorrie,” and I thought of the title, “My God Madi.”

Q: Tell me about the creative process for Feel Alive. What was it like to record the EP’s six tracks at Second Story Sound?

A: Last February, we recorded four songs. We did “Gone by Dawn” and then “Close to My Chest,” which we released as a single, and then we recorded “Enough” and “My God Madi.” We recorded all of those, and I had planned to release them as singles throughout the summer.

And then we came back [to the studio], and I had already written “No Sleep.” Over the spring and summer, I had written “Feel Alive” and “Bottle of Red,” and we liked both songs. We went back to record those, and then we thought, “We should give ‘No Sleep’ another try.” We made it three songs, and while we were recording, we thought, “How should we release these?” And I said, “Let’s just put everything out. I’m tired of sitting on it and thinking about the best ways to release them. I just want them out there.”

We recorded “Feel Alive,” “Bottle of Red,” and “No Sleep” in late September and early October. Once we finally got everything, we decided to release [the EP] around a show, and we did that show at Rapid River Stillhouse in Grand Rapids. We had everyone come to our last show of [2024], and that was our grand master plan and it worked out.

Q: You first recorded a live version of “No Sleep” for your Late Nights — Live EP in 2023. It’s also featured on Feel Alive as a more up-tempo rock version. How did this track evolve in the studio with Greg Baxter?

A: Greg recorded bass for all the second-half tracks that we did, which included “No Sleep,” “Feel Alive,” and “Bottle of Red.” His bass on “No Sleep,” he was sending me files, and he said, “If I play bass like this, it kinda sounds like a punk-rock song.” And I said, “Yes, absolutely, I love that.” It morphed into more of a rock [song] with a heavier chorus than we anticipated.

We released “No Sleep” as a live version recorded at Dogtown Studio a while ago. While we love Dogtown and those views are great, we had been a band for four months. I had known my drummer [Tyler Mazurek], but we had just taken on our guitar player, Lee Vanderkolk, from an Instagram message. We were very new with all of these songs and we just wanted something out there, so we recorded our four favorite songs for that Dogtown session. We just weren’t great at playing the music yet and that’s what we thought for us. We said, “‘No Sleep’ needs another chance because we love that song. We were super glad that we were able to get Greg on it and record that one in the studio. It turned out awesome and that’s our favorite song on the EP.

Q: How did guitarist Lee Vanderkolk and drummer Tyler Mazurek help you shape Feel Alive’s songs in the studio?

A: A lot of the riffs and stuff, I play rhythm guitar and chords. All of those riffs and the drums, that’s all Lee Vanderkolk and Tyler Mazurek—my two guys. They do all that, and Lee is a master at figuring out a riff. He’ll practice the song three or four times, and he’ll say, “I got that,” so that’s how it always goes.

Q: Liz Rohling plays bass on four tracks on Feel Alive. How did you meet Liz and bring her into the EP?

A: For the first recording [session] in February [2024], we had a bass player, [Liz Rohling], who played two or three shows with us. She was the bass player with our guitar player Lee [Vanderkolk] at our church. Liz ended up moving to Nashville shortly after we recorded. She has since moved back, and we haven’t reconnected yet, but that’s something we look forward to soon. She recorded bass on “Gone by Dawn,” “My God Madi,” “Enough,” and “Close to My Chest.”

Q: You’re performing on March 28 with The Nuance and Ryan Lynch at Turnstiles in Grand Rapids. What plans do you have for the show and others coming up?

A: We’re excited to get back out there and play a bunch of shows [this spring and summer]. We’re opening for a band—The Nuance—that we met at Walk the Beat in Grand Haven last year. We connected with them, and it’s our first show back after I’ve become a father. We haven’t met Ryan Lynch yet; that’s The Nuance filling out the bill with [another artist] they know.

We’re playing some new summer concert series [this] year. We’re doing the Coopersville Music on Main in Coopersville on July 10. The Celadon Summer Concert Series is in East Grand Rapids on August 7, and there are a couple more that we might be able to get. We’re also playing shows at one of our favorite venues, The Score, so we’ll be back there this year. There’s a new bar in Grand Rapids called the Rapid River Stillhouse, and we played there for the first time for our EP release show [in November]. That venue is amazing; I’m so glad Grand Rapids finally has something like that.

Q: What’s up next for you and the band?

A: I always [have] lots of songs written, and we’ve had some songs that we’ve put just on YouTube that seem to be heavily requested at live shows. One is called “Headrush,” and I’ve always wanted to record that one. We play that one at a lot of our live shows. We’ve got lots of music in the tank, and nothing’s on the calendar yet, but it’s always something that I’m thinking about.

Harry Dean and The Dusty Boys perform March 28 with The Nuance and Ryan Lynch at Turnstiles, 526 Stocking Avenue Northwest, Grand Rapids. The show starts at 9 p.m.