Plenty Plenty Love

Plenty Plenty Love is a compilation of tracks from three previous releases by Andrew Jones on the Spirithouse label. Fans of ganja/folk legend David Peel will find much in common with Jones' lo-fi episodes on a CD jam-packed with an overwhelming amount of information to initiate the unprepared. There's an eight-minute documentary by filmmaker Maria Gowan culled from two larger projects, as well as a short video of the traditional Caribbean song "Run Come See." The camera work on the video short displays a dark, fly-on-the-wall sort of look at the group Spirit House (same name as the recording company) doing their thing in the studio. Outside of the enhanced CD bonus material is the music itself, not immediately accessible and in need of radio to spin one tune repeatedly, or to win fans over via live performance of compositions like the garage-edged "Slither Down." Andrew Jones' attitude could be mistaken for a low-key reincarnation of a Spike Jones character meeting fellow New Englander Jim's Big Ego, and in some ways that can inhibit, but if one let's the performance of "Dr. Man" into their consciousness, some musical enlightenment could be found here. Spin the reggae/pop number "Brother Jones" a few times to find that "peyote chant"-hootenanny-meets-spiritual/trance coming back to life, just as surely as Jim Pepper's "Witchi-Tai-To" gave early-'70s underground FM a jolting sensation. "Cadillac Heaven," the title track of a previous disc, could be Robert Gordon fronting the Cramps, minimal folk/punk/blues housed in a semi-psychedelic pastel CD cover. Plenty Plenty Love uses a unique marketing strategy, with its colorful eight-page booklet and island philosophy. The alternating musical styles have one thing in common, and that is Andrew Jones' interesting personality. "Shine a Light" is not the Rolling Stones take on a Billy Preston idea, though the sentiment is similar. Each title goes from one extreme to another, — "Minnie the Mermaid" is wildly different from the Taj Mahal-styled "Vertigo Baby," — and it's all on a communal psychedelic/political collection which has depth and holds interest. It's just that you have to do a little seeking before it lets you in.