Maine-raised, Brooklyn-based DIY artist Gemma Laurence is now ready to share one of her catchiest songs yet: ‘Watchdog.’

‘Watchdog’ hurdles us into the snowy foothills of Vermont to witness the beautiful, fickle, and anxiety-producing beginnings of a new relationship. Painting a picture of woodsmoke lingering in crisp cabin air and the rosy alpenglow dancing off the Green Mountains, Laurence transports her listeners into a scene so picturesque it’s too good to be true. “I think I’d like to learn to trust you a little more,” she sings, “But my watchdog heart is sleeping by the backdoor / With one eye open, waiting for you to go with the next snow.”

On the song, Laurence shares: “I wrote ‘Watchdog’ while holed up in a snowy cabin in the Green Mountains mid-pandemic. I brought my dog Scout, and every day Scout would lie right in front of the door to the cabin so that she’d wake up if I had to leave for any reason. That image really stuck with me – this watchdog sleeping by the backdoor with one eye open waiting for any sign at all that I might leave her. ‘Watchdog’ is fundamentally a song about trust. It’s about that moment when you’re developing feelings for somebody, but simultaneously scanning the horizon for threats, looking for any reason that they might leave.”

Opening with steady-rolling acoustic guitar, the song expands into an alt-country banger with dreamy pedal steel, brushed drums rhythms, and timeless three-part harmonies, all grounded by the alt-country twang of Laurence’s smooth alto.