Tom Thumb -- known off stage as the similarly alliterative Andy Arch -- earned his stripes as a songwriter performing on the New York City bar scene. Now he's come to New England to potentially freeze them right off. No worries: Arch's emotionally rich and musically compelling compositions are heartwarming and resilient.

As the album title implies, these songs have a breezy quality, but that doesn't undermine their meaning or intensity. Arch is an exuberant performer, his mood reflecting his enthusiasm for life. "A toast to ourselves, here's to our dreams," he proclaims on "Moonshine", which draws a warm landscape of summer days and field trips in a free flow of recollection unbounded by chorus or verse. Camaraderie, nostalgia and affection are all on parade here, and Arch, his Josh Rouse-like voice accompanied by hearty guitar, is an adept band leader.

Holiday romanticizes transience. "Motel in Phoenix" is a syrupy, windows-down road-tripper, while the fun "Boot Camps" relays innocent tales of schoolyard and summer camp innuendo. Lines like "I'm too young for the physical science / So I'll just act in full compliance with her" show off Arch's witty poetics. Emotional transience is explored on the slow, tender "Flagellites", in which Arch admonishes a promiscuous sometimes-lover, "You don't want me / But there's something that you want from me." Weightier topics are not ignored: the gentle "Time's Arrow" studies life, death and rebirth in hushed, acoustic lessons. The album's only weak point is "Weary Traveler", in which Arch's otherwise tight songwriting dissolves into a bleary tangle of hard riffs and slurred lyrics. For the most point, though, his songs are as memorable as the playgrounds of life and love that they evoke.

The breadth of feeling Arch explores is wide, and though...Songs From Holiday is short (just nine songs in under half an hour), it feels longer by virtue of his ability to pack a three minute song with years of feeling and memory. That's no small feat.