EXCLUSIVE: The Dryes Discuss Their Forthcoming Dear Heart EP and Share the Title Track

Since premiering on Season 22 of NBC’s The Voice as part of Team Blake, the husband and wife duo have been sending ripples out through country music that have built into waves with every release. From steamy country power ballads like ‘War’ and ‘House on Fire’ to the playful ‘Dolly Would’ and recent festive single ‘Why’d You Ruin Christmas,’ The Dryes have sung about love from every angle in sweet sweet harmony.

Their new Dear Heart EP is like a morning after to the night before of last year’s party soundtracking Raisin’ Beers & Hallelujahs EP. Bringing their warm signature harmonies to a more introspective set of songs, the new EP is the perfect fit for the month of May as it marks Mental Health Awareness Month.

Exploring life’s melancholic and pensive experiences, The Dryes share their story in its most raw form, guiding listeners on a journey to fresh perspectives and an energizing sense of hope.

“The EP showcases the last four years of our lives chronologically,” the duo share. “Carrying grief, honest questioning, finding relief in moments of hope, and living with love at the forefront through moments bitter and sweet. Life is short, but it is truly a gift, and Dear Heart is about leaning into it all.”

The Dryes spoke to Holler ahead of the release of the EP about writing and recording their most personal songs yet and let us have an exclusive listen to the title track, ‘Dear Heart.’

Released in February as the lead single and noted by The Dryes as the catalyst track to the project, ‘A Little Longer’ is about the grief that comes after great loss and the importance of learning to sit in the dark with someone you love. Accompanied by a suitably scenic music video, the song takes a unique and introspective perspective, which is acknowledging the privilege of growing together with someone through grief.

“There’s something restful about just sitting with someone and not trying to fix it,” shares Derek. “I don’t want to put a pretty bow on it, but there is a hopeful aspect to it.” 

“This is the start to the story we are sharing,” adds Katelyn.

Ahead of the release of the EP on May 17th, The Dryes are exclusively sharing the title track on Holler. With a gently strummed guitar ticking over and their magically entwined harmonies, it’s a song that slowly opens its arms up and pulls you in for a big warm hug. A reminder that sometimes you just need to take a deep breath and dive into something; it’s okay to be afraid sometimes. It’s what makes us feel alive.

As the title track, ‘Dear Heart’ encompasses the EP as a whole, touching on the awakening and excitement of something new and centring around the importance of taking risks. It’s the internal conversation that we all have when we’re faced with new possibilities in life and encourages doing things because you believe in them even when the outcome is uncertain.

“It can be scary when it comes to jumping into the unknown,” The Dryes share. “But if those dreams are keeping you up at night, you’re on the right path…. Doubt is part of the process.”

Released as the sophomore single from the EP in March, Derek takes the lead on this unflinchingly honest piano ballad. A song about weathered love, which serves as a heartwarming tribute to the couple's love, which they describe as “beyond ourselves.”

“To strip everything down, this love is not perfect but it’s beyond our comprehension,” explains Katelyn. 

“It’s hard to describe,” adds Derek. “But maybe that's because we aren’t supposed to know how to describe it.”

“Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for at the age of forty-five,” Nora Ephron once wrote, and The Dryes’ ‘Beauty Queen’ feels like a song that puts a similarly reassuringly positive spin on getting older.

With a softly bowed fiddle and the kind of melancholy yearning that you find in only the very finest country ballads, this song is a reminder that beauty is in us all. Looks might change with time, but true beauty never leaves.

“She don’t like the freckles on her face / she don’t like the way the edges of her face turn grey,” Katelyn sings, gently reassuring her that to her she’s still as beautiful as she always has been. “She can’t see her halo now and how she stands out in a crowd but I know better, I know better.”

“We wrote this sitting on a porch with our friend Michael Farren,” shares Katelyn. “It’s so easy for women to think they have to be perfect looking. No wrinkles, no extra weight… It's impossible. We just wanted to remind women where their real beauty lies.”

Humming and crackling and creaking in all the right places, ‘North Carolina (Live from Home)’ touches on the journey that the Dryes career has taken them on over the last few years, sharing the idea that the best things happen when you least expect them and acting as a promise that love and good things are right around the corner.

Written sitting around a bonfire in North Carolina, the couple shares the value of loosening your grip and allowing the energy you put out into the world to find its way back to you, because it always will.

“It’s worth the wait and it will be beautiful,” they conclude.

The final track on the EP is an uplifting piano ballad that explores that cathartic feeling of finding love and having the faith to believe and trust in something again even after things don’t go as planned.

The perfect ending to the EP, ‘I Believe’ is about finding your wings and taking off into the sky, soaring above the world and looking down on everything you have to be grateful for. A sweet song of hope in a similar vein to Kacey Musgraves’ ‘Rainbow’ or 'Leave Me Again’ by Kelsea Ballerini.

“It’s hard to feel hopeful and allow yourself to open up to someone or something after being hurt but you have to lean into that courage and that faith that good things are gonna come."

The Dryes' Good Heart EP is available everywhere on May 17th. Listen here.