I woke up last Sunday morning to the pitter-patter of rain crashing into my window. As I pondered the idea of pulling the blankets back up over my head and curling into a few more hours of sleep, thunder rumbled in the distance and I thought "I haven't had the pleasure of enjoying a lazy, rainy Sunday in quite some time."

I crawled out of bed and staggered from window to window, opening each to let the light sound of rain seep in, started a pot of coffee and hit the play button to get Gabriel Dorman's Give That Dog Some Peace playing through speakers in every room of the house.

It has a dreary yet dreamy sound that serves as the perfect supplement to a rainy Sunday afternoon. Acoustic rhythm guitars give way to an upbeat pulse packed with grainy, gruff vocals. Gabriel Dorman -- often groovy, always mellow -- emits a laid-back, yet edgy aura in tracks like Waterdance and I Came Dancing . Spiked with spiteful lines like "you stole my soul" sung in soothing tunes, the songs emulate loud thunder throbbing the mainframe of your home, and reverberating up through your bones, on what would otherwise be a lovely, lazy day.

But, like a needed rain, the beat does not arrive unwanted. It is subtle enough to play perfectly alongside the soothing, throaty libretto. The title track maintains that sprightly sound blended with a calmed chorus -- kind of like Hootie and the Blowfish meets Braddigan. The tunes just barely hit the pop-rock barrier that defines the Blowfish, but do not quite reach the relaxed innocence heard in a Brad Corrigan album. The result is an equally addictive, yet eclectically different folk rock feat.

Give That Dog Some Peace, with its unique mingling of husky, honeyed vocals, intoxicatingly intelligent lyrics and impressive, vigorous waves of sound, is an unexpectedly peaceful piece of music.

Additional Tracks:
Like A Newborn Child
Slow Smoke