If you own a home studio, as this band does, you might as well use it. But
Peas And Collards is the first release from twin brothers Michael and Mark Holland in three years, even though the album is their eighth overall. A self-produced project that clocks in at over an hour, with a few tracks stretched to nine minutes (the rest hover around five), the brothers still should have used a producer other than themselves to act as editor. This is especially true on "Clear Tone Blues," whose extended length and leisurely pace would benefit from pruning. Although the group's music could vaguely be described as blues, that's too simplistic and narrow a term. Certainly there is a blues feel to this project, yet the unhurried, loose-limbed piano jamming on "Don't Bother Me Devil," and the closing "On the Run," sounds more like
Low Spark-era
Traffic. Nothing really rocks, yet the album is seldom boring, even on the longest tunes. Six of its 13 cuts were recorded live in the studio to preserve the spark of the moment, and it sounds it. "Hot Soup" meanders in search of a melody, as a lazy rhythm ambles along for nearly five minutes. The title track sets up a slow-burn jazz-funk bass where Michael Holland's slide guitar finds a groove as the vocalist talks/sings and improvises over the riff. It sounds great for about half of the tune's eight minutes, but the band doesn't seem to know when, or how, to finish the song. Regardless, the album has its own snakelike energy, somewhat like blues crossed with swamp rock, and even if the songs aren't terribly memorable, they create a low-key, near-hypnotic mood. Too offbeat to appeal to the jam audience, not bluesy or jazzy enough for blues and jazz lovers, and much too lackadaisical to attract a pop crowd,
Jennyanykind is nonetheless forging a unique, if difficult to describe sound. With more structure and less noodling, this would be stronger, but the album still succeeds, despite its obvious excesses. ~ Hal Horowitz