"Jake La Botz is a creator of dark poetry and haunting song, the kind of music that gets in your bones and rides you for days, a sound and vision only those who've been to the bottom and clawed their way back up can generate. His midnight gifts evoke Hank Williams and Skip James as much as Tom Waits and Dylan. Not everybody will get this music - because not everybody is ready for the truth."
Jerry Stahl (Author of Permanent Midnight)

"From the first time I heard him play guitar and singing his songs in a smoky bar on La Brea and Sunset, I became a devoted fan of Jake La Botz. Effortlessly blending authentic blues, rock, country, and gospel, he's created a sound and style that is original and yet instantly familiar. Soulful, personal, painfully funny and sad; his beautifully crafted songs always inspire me to sing along. He's a good buddy of mine, but I'd say this even if I didn't like him personally, (which is impossible, by the way) he's a true American classic, a gift, and a musical resource that is a joy to be discovered time and time again. Long Live La Botz!"
Steve Buscemi (Actor, Director)

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Graveyard Jones
By Jake La Botz
Charnel Ground Records; Pasadena, Calif.: 2006

To hear sound clips or learn more about this release, Turbula recommends viewing its Amazon.com entry.

Inhabiting the same dark recesses of the blues as the late Screamin' Jay Hawkins or John Campbell, Jake La Botz's gravelly growl of a voice creates a funereal sound that evokes satanic fears and can make your skin crawl. His new, third CD, "Graveyard Jones," at times is as much a Halloween soundtrack as blues exploration. It's the sort of music one might expect to hear while visiting a voodoo priestess in a back alley of the French Quarter.

With a minimalist approach to instrumentation (acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keyboards), the focus on each song is mostly on La Botz's singing. He's an adequate guitarist (and employs former Rod Piazza sideman Rick "L.A. Holmes" Holmstrom on electric guitar on most tracks), and besides, the songs (he wrote all 14 of them) are really written around the vocal part.

Despite the rough-edges to his voice, La Botz is actually a tremendous singer. Expressive, passionate, and with an innate melodicism, La Botz more than holds his own on the tracks where the rangy Janiva Magness provides harmony vocals.

If you like your blues served up raw, without a lot of window dressing, Jake La Botz has the recipe you've been looking for.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).

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PASADENA WEEKLY
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3999&IssueNum=44
Tattoo blues
Pasadena’s Jake La Botz took his blues on the road — to tattoo parlors across the country

By Bliss

If you can’t move a mountain, make it come to you.

Translation: If tour offers aren’t burning up your phone, seek out your fans where they live … in tattoo parlors.

That’s the brilliantly simple idea that lit up Pasadena-based musician/actor Jake La Botz’s mind like Edison’s proverbial light bulb. His self-produced album “Graveyard Jones” is one of the year’s most original releases — midnight blues as philosophical myth — and he was trying to imagine ways to promote it outside usual channels. Fans and MySpace “friends” provided unexpected answers.

“It turns out I’ve got a lot of fans who are teenagers,” he says, speaking via cellphone from a “hippie café” in Nashville, after driving from the previous night’s gig in Ohio. “In almost every town, there’s some kids who’ve seen [Steve Buscemi’s 2000 film] ‘Animal Factory.’ In fact, lots of the tattoo shops knew about me that way: ‘Wow, you’re that tattooed guy playing guitar in that prison movie.’ I’ve gotten some emails from shops over the years. … That’s partly how I cooked up the idea. The heavily tattooed, independent film-watching, independent music-listening crowd kind of digs this, so I wanted to try to find some way to approach them particularly.”

La Botz is a gritty artist who learned the blues as a trouble-tempting teen from first-generation bluesmen David “Honeyboy” Edwards and Homesick James on Chicago’s storied Maxwell Street. He’s paid heavy dues playing dives, so his spartan PA-amp-mic-guitar setup adapts well to cramped corners. Never having booked a tour before, he’s learning while navigating chaos (the drive-unload-play-load-sleep-drive pace is “insane”), but he expects to break even. And shops want him back.

“It’s a real community kind of vibe; there’s a lot of young kids, families. … It’s not the smoky, dingy rock ‘n’ roll club with three bands that rush you in and rush you out and don’t give you any money. It’s much cooler. … I’m hoping that I opened up a whole new circuit, y’know? There’s the chitlins circuit, the gospel circuit [laughs] and now the tattoo circuit.”

Plans for a documentary crew to film him went awry once touring got underway, but La Botz remains committed to taking professional documentarians on the road to not only film tattoo parlor performances, but also take the pulse of their surrounding communities. He just needs more lead time.

“With this tour, I had three months from the time I had the idea to the time I hit the road. This is more like planting seeds. … I’ll book another tour. With or without the documentary, I want to keep this thing going.”

Jake La Botz ends his Tattoo Across America Tour at 7 p.m. today at True Tattoo, 1628 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood. Call (323) 462-4745. La Botz also plays Sunday at Liquid Kitty in West LA with drummer Jimbo Goodall.

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DESERET NEWS
http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,650201911,00.html
LaBotz finds fans at tattoo parlors
Friday, October 27, 2006

Acoustic blues man Jake La Botz is playing gigs at tattoo parlors, an idea that was sparked by his fans.

"I've played at tattoo conventions, and I've played at some tattoo places," La Botz said by phone from Gary, Ind. "But it was my fans that gave me the idea. On my MySpace site, I have a lot of fans who have tattoos. A majority of them, in fact. So I thought it would be smart do do a tour of tattoo parlors."

When the idea came to him, La Botz, a Chicago native, didn't have a booking agent. "So I just did it this way."

La Botz got his own first tattoo when he was 14, and he likes the art. "It's a way of giving yourself an identification," he said with a laugh.

While in his early 20s, La Botz was basically homeless, sleeping in cars. "I had some music in my veins, though. I was into Bob Dylan and The Beatles. But as I grew older, I found the acoustic blues and was mentored by Honeyboy Edwards."

But problems arose while hanging out with bluesmen. "I got addicted to drugs and alcohol. When you play with bluesmen, you play bars and they set you up with a tab. In most cases, it's part of your pay. And I got addicted to a lot of things."

Eventually, however, La Botz decided that enough was enough. "I had to get help, or else wake up in handcuffs or just not waking up at all. There is a lot of help out there if you want to get clean. It's up to you if you want to go through it."

Not only has La Botz played music and made CDs — his latest is "Graveyard Jones," available on his Web site www.jakelabotz.com — but he's also appeared as an actor in a handful of independent films, such as "Ghost World." "I would like to do more movies and play on more soundtracks, and I would love to get that phone call from a big wig that says, 'We're going to send you the papers; sign your name on the dotted line.'

"But until then, I'm happy playing wherever I can."

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STANDARD-EXAMINER (Salt Lake City area)
http://activepaper.olivesoftware.com/
Jake La Botz bringing his blues to tattoo parlors

Colorful is a fine way to describe bluesman Jake La Botz. His person is fairly festooned with vivid tattoos. His first, he “self-administered” at age 14 with India ink and a sewing needle. Many followed.

As he gets fan e-mail from the tattooed and tattooers alike, La Botz said, he thought it might be fun to do a CD release tour for his latest, “Graveyard Jones,” in tattoo parlors countrywide. He’ll perform in 20 cities across the lower 48, including a show at 6 p.m. Sunday at Attatudecq Tattoo, 231 E. 2100 South, Salt Lake City.

Not only that, La Botz is talking with fans and tattoo aficionados as he goes, filming a road documentary, “Tattoo Across America.”

An actor as well as a musician, La Botz has appeared in the indie films “Ghost World” and the just-released “One Night With You.”

"In one sense, the modern tattoo shop is like the barbershops of yesteryear,” he said from his Los Angeles home. “People gather and talk about the events of the day. Also, it’s become a place where you can check the pulse of modern American culture ... a place where you’ll find young and older creative people checking in with each other and sharing information.”

The performance is free. For more information, call Attatude at 466-3577. — Linda East Brady

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NASHVILLE SCENE
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/.../Our_Critics_Picks/index.shtml
Our Critics Picks
October 26, 2006

Now that the Mississippi Delta has virtually dried up as a source for dismal, ragged-edged bluesmen, it’s hard to think of it as fitting inspiration for Jake La Botz. His 37 years have been colored by dead-end jobs, busking on Chicago’s Maxwell Street—where he met Robert Johnson-heir Honeyboy Edwards—and drug addiction, not to mention shadowy roles in films such as Animal Factory and Ghost World, a Velvet Revolver audition at Slash’s request and loads of tattoos. The Los Angeles artist’s fourth album, Graveyard Jones, has everything to do with the ink. The cover art captures the tattoo on his forearm, a skeletal bluesman burning in the fires of hell. So it’s natural that La Botz is playing tattoo parlors to promote the record. The songs pierce and scrape at the listener’s skin like the needle of a tattoo gun, his harsh, grainy rasp—not unlike Tom Waits’—spewing forth blunt, morbid narratives about threadbare lives and the nearness of the grave. Lone Wolf Body Art —JEWLY HIGHT

NASHVILLE CITY PAPER
http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=12&screen=news&news_id=52898
Blues musician and film star brings unusual tour to Nashville
October 26, 2006

Jake La Botz has combined a love for the blues with a passion for tattoos since his teen days in Chicago, when he was playing music on the streets and self-administering his own body art courtesy of India ink and a sewing needle. La Botz’s latest venture blends his two joys in most unusual fashion. He’s completing a 20-city tour billed as the “Tattoo Across America Tour,” where he performs in various tattoo parlors. He’ll be featured tonight at Lone Wolf Body Art at 6 p.m.

“You really get a different audience and experience performing in tattoo parlors and shops,” La Botz said. “I’ve found over the years that you find a very literate, interested group of people there who are very into music, film and literature. Plus you’re not up on a stage, you’re right down in the midst of the audience. Growing up in Chicago and also playing on the streets, I had some gigs in tattoo shops and have continued playing in them after moving to the West Coast and on throughout my life as a musician, I’ve always enjoyed appearing there.”

La Botz is also presenting selections from his latest CD Graveyard Jones, the follow-up to All Soul and No Money. Both releases spotlight both his animated, jagged guitar playing and equally energetic, distinctive vocals and songwriting. Unlike many contemporary blues and rock types whose styles were developed by immersing themselves in recordings and then building an approach from close study, La Botz got his training first-hand, from one of the last living blues legends David “Honeyboy” Edwards.

“I met him when I was a pretty young and developing musician, though I had listened to all those sessions with the people he knew like Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson,” La Botz said. “I’d go over to his house and he’d ask me to play these songs, and he’d be real honest about what he heard because he knew and played with these people. If you weren’t playing the song right, he’d let you know about it quickly and he’d then show you the right way to do it.”

La Botz’s name has also garnered plenty of recognition among film fans due to his appearances in such productions as Steve Buscemi’s Animal Factory and Ghost World, where his voice and playing were featured as part of the group Blues Hammer. He also hopes to eventually complete a documentary about his current tattoo parlor tour, and continues to champion the tattoo parlor scene as an overlooked artistic community.

“That’s become what they call in this business my demographic,” La Botz said. “Many of these people have been fans of my music for a long time and also fans of other performers that often get ignored by the mainstream. There’s a real artistic community here, and it’s a reason why I eventually want to get it filmed and get them some more exposure and recognition.”


What: Blues and rock musician Jake La Botz’s “Tattoo Across America Tour”
When: 6 tonight
Where: Lone Wolf Body Art, 1602 21st Ave. S.
Cost: Free and open to the public
Info: 321-3111

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ORLANDO WEEKLY
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/columns/story.asp?id=11089
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
10/26/2006

How ironically droll it was to receive a letter (published last week) chiding me for not being “more thorough than the average concertgoer.” Curious when you consider a day I had last week.
All in a day’s work
6:55 pm — Rolled into the parking lot of Solid Image Tattoo to see bluesman Jake La Botz play. Interestingly, this is part of a tour (“Tattoo Across America”) of live shows in tattoo parlors across the country. Sidestepping the conventional circuit, it’s a fairly original concept that keeps the music tied to a scene that’s culturally and artistically invested.
Peppered with wanderlust, crime, a passion for the blues and even a few indie-film acting credits (Ghost World, Animal Factory), the guy’s got an interesting story so I rapped with him awhile. Apart from a shiny gold tooth, he’s got a deceptively young face for a man with a 19-year-old daughter (who’s also his roadie). He’s an affable fellow who’s eager to sit down and chew fat about casual things normal people might discuss — he’s conversant on Vietnamese cuisine, for instance.
La Botz’s warmth is not just reserved for journalists, either; everyone received the treatment.
Though it was jarring to experience a show under the sperm-count-crushing glare of fluorescent tubes, the high-pitched grinding of tattoo pens in the background added texture to the ambience. Even stranger, perhaps, was seeing La Botz’s stripped acoustic blues — with grit that was fit for dusty roadhouses — in such sanitary environs. The appearance on the set list of Robert Johnson and Hank Sr. songs showed him to be clearly rooted in the American music tradition, but his live performance rang with a more authentic and natural tenor than his recordings. The raw setup highlighted his soulful voice and picking style.

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TENNESSEAN
http://tennessean.com
Jake LaBotz gets tattooed, belts out blues
Thursday, 10/26/06

Actor/musician Jake LaBotz says (or at least his MySpace page says) that his music is "The fourth dimension of blues . . . country mysteries from the peripheries . . . wailing soul-gospel screams from the other side . . . primordial Rock and Roll mythology oozing and grooving out of the depths."
A tall, poetic order, but certainly worth a listen.
LaBotz is steeped in the Kerouac road myth, he's traveled since quitting school at 15, and pours it all into his music. When the Los Angeleno isn't wailing and oozing from the depths, LaBotz likes to get tattoos. In fact, he likes them so much that he's currently appearing at finer tattoo parlors around the country, spewing the blues while the needle jockeys sling the ink.
His Nashville stop is today at Lone Wolf Body Art (1602 21st Ave. S.), where he'll play for free, starting at 6 p.m.
(PETER GILSTRAP)

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CHICAGO SUN TIMES
http://www.suntimes.com/.../105102,SHO-Sunday-spins22.article
Spin control
October 22, 2006

FOLK-BLUES
Jake La Botz, "Graveyard Jones" (Common Ground)
Critic's rating: Onetime Chicago street musician Jake La Botz has such an intriguing life story that the bio may have overshadowed the music on his debut disc, "All Soul and No Money." His new sophomore effort, "Graveyard Jones," continues to expand on his so-called "soul-folk" style, but with a fuller band that includes red-hot guitarist Rick Holmstrom and other veterans of the music scene in La Botz's adopted hometown of Los Angeles. La Botz is skilled at crafting talking-blues numbers that are pure poetry. His storytelling roots lie deep in the Delta and Piedmont, and his material is at once timeless and totally fresh. But if there are echoes of Delta blues king Robert Johnson in his new work, there are even stronger reminders of the twistemodern troubadour Tom Waits, whose name appears on the resumes of several of La Botz's backing musicians. Jeff Johnson Note: La Botz brings his Tattoo Across America tour to Body By Design, 13655 S. Cicero, Crestwood, at 6 p.m. Monday and the Chess Records building, 2120 S. Michigan, at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

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CHICAGO SUN TIMES
http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/104481,WKP-News-out20.article

Out & About
October 20, 2006

Two nights of blues, tattoos for La Botz
Bluesman Jake La Botz is promoting his new album, "Graveyard Jones," with a tour that includes stops at tattoo parlors across the country. He will perform in south suburban Crestwood at 6 p.m. Monday at Body By Design, 13655 S. Cicero. With his many tattoos, La Botz has garnered a following in the body-art community, but he also is a tried and true blues artist who learned from Delta greats like Robert Johnson protege David "Honeyboy" Edwards. With that in mind, a second show takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the legendary Chess Studios (Home of Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation), 2120 S. Michigan. Admission to the Body by Design show is free. Call (708) 388-4151. Tickets for the Chess show are $10. Call (773) 927-6420.

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ALTCOUNTRY.NL
http://www.alcountry.nl

Slash van Guns ‘n Roses riep hem ooit op voor een auditie voor Velvet Revolver, maar dat liep op niets uit. Jake La Botz treurde er niet lang om en nam een baantje aan als gitarist voor de Greater Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Weliswaar beschouwt hij zichzelf niet als een christen; hij genoot er wel van de totale overgave van de kerkgangers. De biografie op de website van Jake La Botz leest als het script voor een film. Op zijn vijftiende weggelopen, autodiefstal, slapen onder bruggen, baantjes als arbeider in fabrieken waar hij de enige blanke was... Dat laatste kwam hem overigens niet zo vreemd voor, want zijn vader was ook al de enige witte reporter van de Chicago Daily Defender. Daar in Chicago leerde Jake La Botz alles over de blues, maar hij hield net zoveel van hillbilly. Hij wilde acteur worden, maar ontdekte op dat moment ook punkrock. Blues, country, gospel, soul, punk, het is allemaal terug te vinden op de rauwe rockplaat Graveyard Jones (eigen beheer). Niet als pure stijlvormen, maar ergens onder de oppervlakte van deze zinderende americana. Op de vierde cd van Jake La Botz betalen al zijn passies zich uit in een artistieke triomf. Te rauw wellicht voor velen, deze Exile On Main Street anno 2006, maar wat een plaat. Jake La Botz begeeft zich met Graveyard Jones op het terrein van Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, klinkt als Tom Waits met een rockband of Johnny Dowd met soul. Gitaarspelen kan hij als de besten en een originele song schrijven is deze zoon van een journalist ook wel toevertrouwd. Hij schets het beeld van een donker en gevaarlijk Amerika. “I was digging a well with an old blood stain... poking around with a blind man’s cane”, met die woorden zet La Botz direct in het eerste nummer, Tiny, de toon. Humor heeft hij ook, zoals in slotsong Provoking Your Care: “All you can eat pancakes today at the Veterans hall... the foods not so great. Hung on the wall is a frozen portrait of old Figgie. The only known man to eat 23 plates all in a row without weeping.” Denk qua sound aan een Ramsay Midwood, terwijl een song als The Wishing Well weg heeft van The Band. Op zijn eerste twee platen beperkte La Botz zich nog tot akoestische countryblues - zijn tweede cd nam hij overigens op in de studio van Victoria Williams in de Joshua Tree-woestijn -, maar die omschrijving volstaat absoluut niet meer. De elektrische gitaar van La Botz steekt gemeen. En de begeleiders hebben al evenveel soul. Doug Livingston speelt op Tiny pedal steel, er zijn orgels, banjo’s, fiddles, een saxofoon, klarinet en trompet en in Grandma’s Photographs timmert Danny McGhough heerlijk alsmaar op dezelfde toetsen van een piano. In oktober maakt La Botz een tournee van de westkust van Amerika naar de oostkust waarbij hij uitsluitend in tattooshops zal optreden. Geloof me, die film met en over Jake La Botz komt er ook nog wel. (John Gjaltema)

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NORTH COUNTY TIMES (San Diego)
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/10/05/entertainment/music/12_42_4210_4_06.txt

CD Reviews
By Staff and Wire reports

"Graveyard Jones"
Jake La Botz
Charnel Ground Records
B+

Inhabiting the same dark recesses of the blues as the late Screamin' Jay Hawkins or John Campbell, Jake La Botz's gravelly growl of a voice creates a funereal sound that evokes satanic fears and can make your skin crawl. His new, third CD, "Graveyard Jones," at times is as much a Halloween soundtrack as blues exploration. It's the sort of music one might expect to hear while visiting a voodoo priestess in a back alley of the French Quarter.

With a minimalist approach to instrumentation (acoustic guitar, bass, drums, keyboards), the focus on each song is mostly on La Botz's singing. He's an adequate guitarist (and employs former Rod Piazza sideman Rick "L.A. Holmes" Holmstrom on electric guitar on most tracks), and besides, the songs (he wrote all 14 of them) are really written around the vocal part.

Despite the rough edges to his voice, La Botz is actually a tremendous singer. Expressive, passionate, and with an innate melodicism, La Botz more than holds his own on the tracks where Janiva Magness provides harmony vocals.

If you like your blues served up raw without a lot of window dressing, Jake La Botz has the recipe you've been looking for.

Jake La Botz performs Tuesday at Absolute Tattoo in San Diego (8055 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. #10).

---- Jim Tragaser

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LA WEEKLY
http://www.laweekly.com/la-vida/hoopla/best-events-column-2006/14695/

HOOPLA
Best Events Column, 2006
By Libby Molyneaux
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - 12:00 pm

SATURDAY, October 7

“In one sense, the modern tattoo shop is like the barbershops of yesteryear,” states blues musician Jake La Botz. And he’s walking it like he’s talking it on his Tattoo Across America Tour to promote his new CD, Graveyard Jones. His itinerary will take him to tattoo parlors, where he will compete with the sound of electric needles. Appearances across the country include Tattoomania (TX), Incision Tattoo (AZ) and Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo (MA). Also, “You need not be tattooed to attend.” Shamrock Social Club, 9026 Sunset Blvd., W. Hlywd.; Sat., Oct. 7, 6 p.m.; free. (310) 271-9664.

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LA WEEKLY
http://www.laweekly.com/music/music/rock-picks/14712/

Rock Picks
For the week of Oct. 5–12
By L.A. Weekly Music Staff
Wednesday, October 4, 2006 - 12:00 pm

Jake La Botz at the Shamrock Social Club

Blues man Jake La Botz came up the right-proper, fucking hard way: a teen renegade on the streets of Chicago, dabbling in a mixture of antisocial activities (from car theft to jabbing up his own rudimentary tattoos) and exploring the rich, deep blues tradition as a street singer (with Chi-town legend Blind Arvella Gray) and beside Delta-blues originator “Honeyboy” Edwards. That lovely, lurid background forged a musical power that, as heard on his current CD, Graveyard Jones, demonstrates not only an innate mastery of the blues, but also displays what he calls a “condensed rock & roll mythology.” Tonight’s appearance, in Mark Mahoney’s Sunset Strip tattoo parlor, presents La Botz’s considerable musical force in an ideally offbeat setting. Show at 6 p.m. 9026 W. Sunset Blvd., W. Hlywd. (310) 271-9664. (Jonny Whiteside)

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PHOENIX NEW TIMES
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/search/events.php?eventSearch=1&date=2006-10-09

Exterior Decorator
Tat cat takes his ink strains on the road

By Ed Masley

There’s really not much to the sound of Jake La Botz’s latest record, Graveyard Jones, that screams out, “This is tattoo-parlor music!” But apparently a Starbucks tour just wasn’t in the cards. And, well, that is a pretty cool tat he’s sporting on the album cover -- a cowboy skeleton playing Dobro while waving a bottle of hooch in the air. So if La Botz wants to launch a full-scale tour of 20 tattoo parlors, well, we figure, that’s his call -- a call he apparently based on all the e-mails he’d been getting these past few years from tattoo shops and fans with inked-up body parts. The erstwhile street performer who tried out for Velvet Revolver and portrayed a musician in the movie Ghost World will showcase songs from Graveyard Jones -- a record he calls “a jug of condensed rock ´n’ roll mythology waiting to be mixed with your consciousness” -- during his Tattoo Across America Tour. The neo-bluesman will also be filming the show for a documentary about “outsiders, tattoos, music and the search for community in the contemporary world.”

Date/Time: Mon., Oct. 9, 9:30 p.m.
http://www.incisiontattoo.com

Incision Tattoo
5414 W. Glendale Ave.
Glendale, AZ
623-937-5666

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POLLSTAR
http://www.pollstar.com/news/viewnews.pl?NewsID=7311

Blues & Tattoos
Updated 04:08 PDT Tue, Oct 03 2006

There's certainly nothing new about seeing a concert at an art gallery or artist's studio. Here's a musician who's taking that concept just a bit further.

While planning a tour to promote his new album, Graveyard Jones, blues musician and actor Jake La Botz stumbled onto the perfect venue for his music - tattoo studios. Pollstar spoke with him about the inspiration behind such a novel tour.

First, thanks for taking time out to answer some questions. How did you decide to do the tour this way? This is a very old-school approach. Was that part of the attraction?

This is how it went down...

I've been playing professionally for 15 or 16 yrs. For the first half of that I was strung out like a lab rat on "stuff" and couldn't tour... had to stay close to the dope man. When I finally woke up from that particular nightmare I found myself sketching a bad caricature of the American dream along with a million other hopeful musicians in Hollywood. After many near misses with labels, managers and other big shots.
I finally figured out that I could go on tour without anyone from the music industry giving me the go ahead. In fact it began to look like I had an obligation to the fans who had been sending me emails asking me why I never play in Poughkeepsie or Fargo or wherever. I felt kinda stupid telling 'em I don't have a booking agent...I mean it's not like I don't own a car and a guitar... so I decided to figure out who they are and go meet them.
From looking at my fans profiles on myspace I noticed a lot of them are heavily tattooed and somewhat artistically ecumenical. Also, having recently played at a tattoo convention in Long Beach, CA and having sold bizillions of CD's I figured "I'm on the fringe of this art / entertainment deal... so are my fans. Lets do a tour on the fringe... forget about the typical music venues...and actually mix it up on the shop floor."

Once you had the inspiration, how did you pull the whole thing together?

So I put it up on the internet that I was gonna do this thing and pretty soon I had to turn down shops that wanted to be involved... which is too bad. I'd like to play them all. What I'm thinking is to do this every year... different shops... also Europe, Japan, Australia... what the hell?
But yeah... the old school thing. When I hear stories from my pal and mentor, delta bluesman Honeyboy Edwards, man... he just went off and did it - place to place - him and Robert Johnson did that in the 30's.

On Graveyard Jones you play with a band. Will they be traveling with you or will you hook up with any other musicians along the way?

Just me and an acoustic guitar.
In Chicago I will meet up with a coupla guys to back me up at the legendary Chess Records Studio on south Michigan Ave. (now it's the Blues Heaven Foundation) where Howling Wolf, Muddy, Bo Diddley, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, etc. made all those great records.

Your MySpace page lists a huge number of influences, some of whom are apparent in your music. Is there one musician who's had a particularly strong impact on you?
Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis. Real name was Charles Thompson. As a young man, at the end of the depression, he was a clown traveling with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. In the 40's he met up with John Lee Hooker in Detroit and learned how to play guitar.
Eventually he wound up playing guitar on Maxwell Street which is where I met him in the 80's and where I learned about the mysteries of the cheap guitar, the cheap wine and the priceless lineage of blues singers who can connect to the soulful voice way down below the dirt on Maxwell Street.

The tour is being filmed for a documentary. Are you thinking about it as a theatrical release or as something for IFC?

It'd be real nice to get a theatrical release. Or I could pack a big screen and a projector in the car and show it at tattoo shops on the next tour!

What do you think the focus of the film will be? In other words, what do you want the public to take away from seeing it?

I honestly don't know what I'm going to find on this journey. One thing I'm curious about is what it means to be an artist and an individual in this particular time and place. Also, how music and tattoos tie in together... the sense of lineage that apply to both. And maybe a hopeful message that we can actually just be who we really are without outside approval.

Your songs are drawn from your life, which by the way is a fascinating story in it's own right. Have you thought about writing new songs inspired by the tour for an album to go with the film?

Unfortunately for me I don't seem to have that kind of control over what I write about. The songs bubble up on their own time...but it's an interesting thought.

Anyone who wants to hear more of La Botz or catch him live, his new album Graveyard Jones will be released October 3, and his Tattoo Across America tour kicks off October 7 at Hollywood's Shamrock Social Club and crisscrosses the country through November 2.

Jim Otey / Pollstar

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LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
http://www.u-entertainment.com/ci_4446723

JAKE LA BOTZ: "Graveyard Jones"
By Bob Strauss, Staff Writer
(Charnel Ground)

Sometime car-dweller and indie movie actor La Botz dreams up bizarro electric blues, rocking just as hard on sentimental pieces. As the album's title suggests, there's a good deal of morbidity and mortality obsessed over here, but it's one lively-sounding funeral. To promote the disc, La Botz is taking his impassioned, woodchipper voice on a tour of some of the nation's finer tattoo parlors, starting Saturday at the Shamrock Social Club in Hollywood.

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HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS
http://www.pennlive.com/news/patr...03275760.xml&coll=1#continue

Night Live
Jake La Botz makes a PERMANENT IMPRESSION
Thursday, October 12, 2006

By Alexis Dow

Postmodern bluesman Jake La Botz has embarked on an unusual tour. His "Tattoo Across America" tour in support of his new album, "Graveyard Jones," has taken him to tattoo shops across the country, and it will hit Permanent Impressions in Lemoyne on Wednesday.

So, why play shows at tattoo shops?

"There have been many ups and downs," said La Botz, who has been playing for 15 years. He's performed at several tattoo conventions and was extremely well received.

"These are clearly my people," he says. "I figured that me and the fans are kind of on the fringe of the music and art world, so why not do a tour that's on the fringe?"

Also, playing shows in unconventional locations goes hand in hand with La Botz' do-it-yourself attitude toward making music.

"I'm not a businessman," says La Botz, "this tour is a way for me to get my music out there completely independent of the music business."

La Botz grew up in Chicago, where he dreamed of being an actor and attended a public arts magnet school. After discovering the mid-'80s punk scene, La Botz found another creative outlet: music.

"I discovered that music was like a friend you could bring with you anywhere," he says, "you could be sitting alone at a train station, but if you had your guitar, suddenly you weren't [alone]."

After traveling the country, La Botz ended up in Los Angeles. He played in some indie films, including "Ghost World," a great movie with Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannsen and Steve Buscemi, and "Animal Factory," which Buscemi directed.

La Botz's new album, "Graveyard Jones," is rooted in old blues, and he has a troubadour quality about him that is exemplified on this record. His raspy voice spins beautiful, gritty narratives. I'm totally hooked.

Jake La Botz, 7 p.m. Wednesday at Permanent Impressions Tattoo, 46 S. Third St., Lemoyne. Admission: Free. Information: 731-5411, www.pitattoo.com

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TAMPA TRIBUNE
http://www.tbo.com/life/MGBLOLD96TE.html

5 Minutes With Jake La Botz, Musician
By CURTIS ROSS The Tampa Tribune
Published: Oct 12, 2006

TAMPA - Jake La Botz gave himself his first tattoo at age 14. Soon, he and his friends were inking one another, with mixed results.

"Those things were all so sloppy-looking, I've tried to get most of them covered up with more professional-looking tattoos," La Botz, 37, says from his home in Los Angeles.

He has had many of those old tattoos and much of his body covered by ink.

"I don't know how many; I've got a lot," La Botz says when asked about the number of tats he has.

When La Botz wasn't under the needle, he was developing an approach to music influenced by both the early '80s hard-core punk scene in his hometown of Chicago and the city's better-known blues legacy.

His current tour finds La Botz performing solo in tattoo parlors across the United States, including Las Vegas Tattoo Co., 1829 Seventh Ave. in Ybor City. La Botz plays there Sunday. Call (813) 248-3004 for information.

Where did you get the idea to tour tattoo parlors?

I had some idea of this in the back of my mind for several years. I have all these people saying, "Come play in our town," but how do I book a tour?

The fans who write and say, "Come and play," I realize these guys, like me, are heavily tattooed. I decided to follow that thread and see how these things come together.

The shops seem to have been receptive.

I'm gonna play at places that aren't regular places. I didn't realize at first it would be tattoo parlors. Could have been empty lots or abandoned churches. I had this connection to friends of mine in the tattoo world. I talked to a couple of guys who said, "Yeah, come play in my shop."

There are so many interesting tattoo artists out there. Some are friends; some are friends of friends; some I've never met before. And they just have fascinating stories. I mainly became interested in who they are.

There's a shot of one of your many tattoos on the cover of your new album, "Graveyard Jones."

I've got a lot. At a certain point they begin to blend in. I'm not so covered that they all blend into one, but you never know after this tour. I'm already scheduled to get a portrait of the great Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

You learned the blues from Honeyboy Edwards, and you were part of Chicago's hard-core punk scene. Is there a musical connection?

There's a direct connection with some primordial raw energy; I'm not saying all punk rock has it, but there's definitely the possibility of that in punk rock, and there's definitely a real connection between blues and punk rock.

When I was a teenager, the punk rock hard-core scene was really happening in Chicago, in '82, '83. It was so fresh, really like something that seemed to be completely run by teens.

Here's something that was absolutely our own deal. And you don't have to answer to anybody else. The community spirit of it really attracted me to it. But it was mainly the sex and

drugs. Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

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PRICK MAGAZINE
http://www.prickmag.net/tattootourfeature.html

TATTOO ACROSS AMERICA
TOUR FEATURING JAKE LA BOTZ

by Sean Dettman
Photos courtesy of Jake La Botz
From the October 2006 issue of PRICK Magazine.

Take one blues musician from L.A., throw in a handful of tattoo shops from across the country, book yourself a tour and, on top of everything else, set out to film a documentary about the whole project. This is the vision that Jake La Botz's Tattoo Across America Tour is aiming to make a reality.

La Botz learned to play the blues at a young age while in Chicago. "I listened to old blues records, and growing up in Chicago there was a real interesting blues scene going on," Jake recalls. After dropping out of high school, stealing a few cars, and finding himself in one compromising situation after another, he wound up acting in a few films (most notably Animal Factory and Ghost World). Between working in the indie music scene and playing guitar for several Gospel churches, Jake has also made a few appearances at tattoo shops in the L.A. area (Gill Montie's Tattoomania and Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Social Club).

This tour was born out of a necessity to please his fans. "Aside from playing in L.A., I have a small following of fans in various places that write and ask me to come to their towns to play," says Jake. Over time, he began to notice that, like himself, a large portion of his fans tended to be of the heavily tattooed variety. This made the tour something that he felt just simply needed to be done. It kicks off on October 2nd at Mahoney's shop in Hollywood and will continue through November.

His documentary-in-progress will focus upon tattoos and music, their cultural connection, and how they both relate to his life as an artist and as an individual. Jake's national tour is something unprecedented in the music world and will attempt to transform what we traditionally consider shop territory into a more untraditional venue for musicians and artists alike.

With this endeavor, La Botz hopes to find an accepting niche both in the music and tattoo communities while also proving that grassroots projects can exist and be successful at the same time. If his tour isn't coming within driving distance, there's always next year. "I'm considering making this tour an annual event and playing at some different shops each time. I'm also planning on doing a Tattoo Across Europe tour," he says. Without a doubt, this will be one of the most unique tours to roll across the country this year.

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JIM SULLIVAN INK.COM
http://www.jimsullivanink.com/index.php...9d6465

Ink stained wretch? No, hard edged blues guy.
Friday, Oct. 20

The Rolling Stones called an album "Tattoo You." You're average heavy metal band member is festooned with them. The artist formerly known as Slug from the Jim Rose Circus is covered head-to-foot. Yes, tattoos have been part of the rock culture almost as long as they've been part of the US Navy's, so singer-songwriter Jake La Botz is doing something about it. He's on a tattoo parlor tour across America. In Boston, he's at Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoo Friday, Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. and we assured it is every bit a real gig. La Botz, who's got a few tats himself, has quite a past: car thief, indie film actor ("Ghost World"), potential member of Velvet Revolver and a post-modern bluesman praised by one of our favorite hard-assed writers, Jerry Stahl, this way: "Not everybody will get (his music) because not everybody's readu for the truth.'' La Botz is touring to support his new CD, "Graveyard Jones." Just show up and let La Botz do his thing. Free.

380 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, 627-522-6444 fatramtattoo.com.

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AUSTIN AMERICAN STATESMAN
http://www.austin360.com/ev...&eventid=101709

Entertainment
Jake La Botz

360 Pick

Profile
XL Recommended: We know, we know. It's a gimmick. But it's a good one. Self-described 'post-modern bluesman and indie film star' La Botz is touring ink palaces across the country. He stops in at Southside Tattoo to launch his 'Graveyard Jones' CD, released by Charnel Grounds Records last Tuesday. 1313 S. Congress Ave. 444-1313.
-- Michael Barnes

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NASHVILLE ALL THE RAGE
October 18, 2006

Best Bet

Jake La Botz

Don’t dare write off Jake La Botz as some Tom Waits wannabe. There’s a lot more to him than that. First impression aside—suggesting vocal strains of Waits, Jeff Black, a dash of Axl Rose and a hint of, god forbid, that Crash Test Dummies Guy—the L.A-based singer/songwriter is actually quite a flying-under-the-radar treasure. Speaking of G ‘n R, a couple of years ago Slash discovered La Botz and asked him to audition for Velvet Revolver. Since that gig didn’t pan out, he stuck to doing what he does best: touring the country, bellying up restrained ramshackle blues and brooding lyrical symmetries. Reportedly conceived while his parents listened to a record by Texas bluesman Mance Lipscomb, La Botz took the blues to heart; it serves as the periphery of each of his indie releases, including the newest — Graveyard Jones. If you’re up for a night filled with some eccentric poetics like the following, La Botz is your best bet. “If you’re ever in need of a plumber, you oughta call on Graveyard Jones. He’s mighty handy with a plunger, and if you listen real close you can hear confessions in the rattling of his bones.”
–DOUGLAS WATERMAN

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MACON TELEGRAPH
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/entertainment/15740672.htm

Posted on Fri, Oct. 13, 2006
GIG GUIDE
Who's playing in local clubs

Jake La Botz

La Botz avoids the mainstream like a Dracula avoids the dawn. As an actor, he gravitates toward indie movies like "Ghost World." (He was one of the guys in Blues Hammer, the awful band that offends the ears of Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi.) As a musician, he's not satisfied to gig in bars like his peers. He's booked himself in tattoo parlors across the country and is filming a documentary about his outsider odyssey. His sound, as evidenced by his "Graveyard Jones" CD, is a bluesy mix of Bob Dylan and Tom Waits.

Playing at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, at Beyond Taboo Tattoo, 3370 Pio Nono Ave. 785-8080. No cover.

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CLEVELAND SCENE
http://entertainment.clevescene.com/search/topPicks.php

Top Picks
Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Jake La Botz
Tattoo Tour

By Michael Gallucci

Singer-songwriter Jake La Botz takes a different approach to touring. Instead of hitting the usual dive bars to promote Graveyard Jones, his new CD, the alt-bluesman will perform at tattoo parlors across the country, including a stop at 252 Tattoo today. La Botz, who grew up in Chicago, first inked himself with a sewing needle when he was 14; he's now covered in tats.

He's also a familiar face on the big and small screens, with roles on Gilmore Girls and in Ghost World, where he was a member of the intentionally awful Blueshammer band. Graveyard Jones is a simultaneously grimy and reflective look at America's underbelly. 252 Tattoo, 2000 Tate Ave., Cleveland

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BOSTON PHOENIX
http://thephoenix.com/Listings/Details.aspx?category=Listing&&listing=147102

JAKE LABOTZ
Date(s): Friday, October 20, 2006

BLUES

JAKE LABOTZ loves tattoos. He also loves dirty blues. So he’s doubled ’em up for his new Graveyard Jones (Charnel Ground) and is touring tattoo parlors across the country to support the album and smell the ink. He’s taking along a filmmaker friend to make a documentary about “outsiders, tattoos, music, and the search for community in the contemporary world,” and tonight they pull into Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo, 380 Centre St, Jamaica Plain | 7 pm | free | 617.522.6444.

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BOSTON HERALD
http://theedge.bostonherald.com/musicNews/view.bg?articleid=162955

Ink spots: Bluesman La Botz draws fans with tattoo parlor tour
By Christopher Blagg
Thursday, October 19, 2006

When indie blues troubadour Jake La Botz thought about touring to promote his new “Graveyard Jones” CD, he didn’t seek out the usual venues. He gravitated to where he’s comfortable: tattoo parlors.

That’s where you’ll find the Los Angeles-based former street musician on his Tattoo Across America tour, which brings him to Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo in Jamaica Plain tomorrow.

We spoke with La Botz last week - when he was at the legendary Doc Dog’s tattoo shop in Las Vegas.

Herald: Why did you decide to play only tattoo shops?

La Botz: I’ve been playing music professionally for 16 years, and I’ve got no big label, no booking agent, no manager, no representation period. Having a history of playing tattoo shops, having known some great tattooers over the years, and having just played at a tattoo convention in Long Beach, I thought to myself, ‘Man, these are kind of my people here. I’m on the fringe, they’re on the fringe, I’m going to do a show on the fringe, a tour completely outside the typical music scene altogether, forget about the music industry.’ The response has been fantastic. Before I knew it, I had a month of shows booked. I had to start turning people down.

Herald: Is there a connection between the tattoo culture and music?

La Botz: Definitely. Tattooing and music have gone hand-in-hand since the tribal roots of tattooing. If you look at the kind of music I play (Delta blues, which La Botz learned from Chicago legends Honeyboy Edwards, Homesick James and Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis), there’s a lineage in this music that I feel totally connected to. Likewise, in tattooing, guys undergo these classically styled apprenticeships. You find out immediately where a guy learned from, so there’s this sense of respect for the people that started it. Not everybody has that in tattooing, but the shops I’m playing, that’s the deal: people who have a sense of tradition.

Herald: What came first, tattoos or music?

La Botz: Love of music. Ever since I was a little kid. I’d listen to all these sad songs, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, the Beatles. I was a weird kid, I didn’t go out and play much. I’d just hang out and listen to sad songs over and over.

Herald: When did you realize you could play music for a living?

La Botz: I never had any intention to be a musician, I thought I’d always be doing construction work. I worked on the docks and in factories, so I figured I’d just keep on bustin’ ass. Then I figured there’s got to be an easier way to make a dime. After awhile, I could get away with singing three or four Hank Williams songs without people telling me to shut up, so I thought I might be onto something.

Herald: You were invited to try out for lead singer in Velvet Revolver. How did that happen?

La Botz: Pretty weird. Slash called asking if I’d try out for this band, basically Guns N’ Roses without Axl Rose. He’d heard a tape of mine when he was getting tattooed by a buddy of mine. It would have been a pretty interesting gig, but it probably would have killed my solo career. I think things worked out the way they were supposed to. Although I almost bought a pair of leather pants.

Jake La Botz at Fat Ram’s Pumpkin Tattoo, Jamaica Plain, tomorrow at 6 p.m. Call 617-522-6444. Also at 21 Nickels Grille & Tap, Watertown, at 9 p.m. Call 617-923-7021.

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CREEM MAGAZINE
Jake LaBotz
All Soul And No Money
Joseph Street

Fans of the film Ghost World will recognize Jake LaBotz as one of the members of the hilariously lame band Blues Hammer. Fortunately, LaBotz is far more deft with hand tools than his character. This Chicago native has lived a gritty, bluesy existence which is reflected on his debut album All Soul and No Money. He draws deep from the well of experience to ask the deep questions of the ages — questions like "did you take your wedding ring off before you jacked off?" It's a soulful folksy blues experience that shouldn't be missed.

-Brian J. Bowe
March 2005

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PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Jake La Botz
All Soul and No Money
(Joseph Street ***1/2)

In the movie Ghost World, starring his pal Steve Buscemi, Jake La Botz plays guitar in what is supposed to be a cliched blues band. On his national debut, the Chicago native, now based in Los Angeles, shows that his own music is anything but hackneyed.

La Botz calls it "soul folk," but his category-defying mix includes heavy doses of blues, rock and gospel, reflecting his background playing both on the street and in church. Singing in a voice that falls between the braying power of Axl Rose and the ragged, hipsterish drawl of early Tom Waits, he sounds equally at home with the blaring title cut and with the gently picked "Ballad of the Unknown Bluesman (Back to Mississippi)," one of the best examples of his colorful storytelling.

He also moves easily between the sacred ("I Gotta Write to Know Jesus") and the profane (the pretty funny "Love Advice From Grandma").

Nick Cristiano

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LOS ANGELES TIMES
Buzz Bands

Jake La Botz's "All Soul and No Money," also due Tuesday, is certainly all glorious guts, whether the L.A.-based singer-songwriter is coming at you as a bluesman, punker or purveyor of twang. Tuesday, he's at Spaceland.

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CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
Spin control
February 13, 2005

JAKE LA BOTZ, "ALL SOUL AND NO MONEY" (JOSEPH STREET) *** 1/2

Jake La Botz has gone Hollywood since pulling up stakes in Chicago, where he used to woodshed on Maxwell Street with Jimmy Davis. You might have seen him playing guitar in Blueshammer, the world's worst pseudo-blues band, in "Ghost World," or entertaining his fellow cons in Steve Buscemi's "Animal Factory" (his big number in that film, "Used to Be," is included here). Over in South Central, he's been sitting in with the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church band.

But have no fear: He retains true grit on this debut disc. "All Soul and No Money" is described as "soul-folk," but there are certainly elements of blues and punk rock as well. La Botz is just an all-around fine storyteller with a knack for capturing the ironic futility of the human condition.

Jeff Johnson

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LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
JAKE LA BOTZ: "All Soul and No Money" (Joseph Street)
By Bob Strauss
Staff Writer

South Central church guitarist and sometimes movie actor La Botz has penned himself a brilliantly blasted blues album, full of Chicago electric thunder and the hardscrabble squawk of Mississippi hill country. Some of the songs -"Used to Be," "Ballad of the Unknown Bluesman" - are just epic odes to trouble-turned lives. Others, like "Love Advice From Grandma," are plain profane funny. And La Botz brilliantly works in unexpected flourishes like string quartets, flinty flutes and Willie Chambers' gospel shouts to the most authentic-sounding blues any white guy has recorded in ages.

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GREEN MAN REVIEW
Jake La Botz, All Soul and No Money
(Joseph Street Records, 2005)

Scheduled for release at the end of January, All Soul and No Money is the first album for singer/songwriter Jake La Botz. But it's been a long time coming. His bio has a long list of accomplishments and activities over the past few years. Born in Chicago, but presently living in LA, La Botz has played guitar in the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church band, he appeared in the film Ghost World with his friend Steve Buscemi, wrote obits, worked at a graphite factory, and for awhile he lived in his car! Until the icy Chicago weather forced him inside. The album title may describe his current position, but if there's any justice, things should certainly change.

The album begins with raw electric guitar, and Jake's rootsy voice against a primitive rhythm section. It continues in much the same direction. Elements of Tom Waits, Howlin' Wolf, and others surround him but La Botz seems to be his own man. His songs are fundamental. They deal with life in the modern age. "Are you a lost child...looking for home?" "I used to have a woman in my home...a long long time ago." "If you follow me down, don't bring your cares, it ain't far from here." The lyrics are straitforward, hopeful, and sometimes quite moving in their simplicity. Some rock, and some just find their own groove.

The band includes one-time Flying Burrito Brother Jim Goodall on drums, bassists Jeff Turmes and Bobby Tsukamoto, and guitarist Peter Atanasoff. They provide solid backing and are joined by guests, organist Eddie Baytos, and Adele Bertei and Willie Chambers on vocals. The sound is open and inviting and the feeling is a mix of urban and delta blues. La Botz has a way of capturing his influences and putting his own stamp on them. You can hear the streets, the burned out cars, the ghetto churches, and the echoes of a choir!

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BLUESWAX
Jake La Botz - All Soul and No Money
An Eclectic Delight

Ahh, the old plight of musicians around the world. They perform the music they love but rarely receive a dime for their hard labors. This is best expressed in the Blues and often in certain Folk circles, which is exactly where Jake La Botz takes the listener with his latest album, "All Soul and No Money".

With a combination of Country, Folk, Rock, Gospel, and Blues, La Botz leads us on an intimate road trip with songs about love lost, living poor, and learning the lessons life hands you. It's a journeyman's album full of emotion and soul.

Songs such as "Lost Child" and "It's Gonna Rain Again" have boogie Blues beats to them, but Jake makes them uniquely his. Likewise, when he sings "The Grey" it sounds like it was inspired by Bob Dylan , but without stealing the sound away from its maker. Then there's the title song, "All Soul and No Money," which could rip right out of any college radio Alt Rock station. And when you're ready for some good down home Gospel, La Botz gives us "I Gotta Write to Know Jesus." The variety is the thing that makes this album work. The voice is distinctly Jake La Botz, but he's never afraid to try different sounds all within the same album. While some songs are more powerful than others, every tune is equally approachable and a delight to listen to.

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L.A. ALTERNATIVE PRESS
Sundry Songs - The gospel - and everything else - according to Jake La Botz.
By Sharon Liveten

He's got the name of a rapper, the good looks of a boy band member and the nasty past of a punk rocker. He's none of the above. Instead, Jake La Botz, whose new album, "All Soul and No Money," is coming out on Joseph Street Records, falls somewhere between blues-rock and gospel, with tinges of punk-rock attitude, and the deft wordplay of a rapper. Somehow, the more you listen to the album, the more sense it makes.

Born in San Diego a few decades ago, his family moved to Chicago just in time for him to realize that he couldn't relate to his schoolmates. Which, like hordes of musicians before him, brought him to music. "I got into music by being really lonely," he says with a wry grin, flashing a perfect smile accented by a gold front tooth. "I was completely obsessed with sad music."

While it's difficult to balance that lonely pre-teen with the handsome guy who draws appreciative stares even in the tragically hip coffee shop where we're having lunch, it kind of makes sense. La Botz doesn't even seem to notice either the looks or the irony.

For him, it's the journey that brought him from a loser loner to where he is today - a player on the brink of breaking through - that's fascinating. It's been a circuitous trip, and is documented thoroughly in his music. Songs features rock influences ("Lost Child," "Follow Me Down"), country ("Used To Be"), folk/punk ("Love Advice From Grandma"), and attitudinal gospel ("I Gotta Write To Know Jesus," "…And Keep On Praying.") All his songs are coated with a blues sheen.

It makes sense. The saddest music in the world is the blues, and as a miserable kid, Jake was living in the blues hub. "It was like finding home when I found blues music. But," he confesses, "I feel really bad about this: I stole a blues record from the library when I was 16 or so. Then I found out that the guy was alive, so I went to see him play. I also had a very romantic view of these older guys who played music and drank a lot."

He started ditching school and spending as much time as possible searching out blues players. "I'd cut school and go to the park. They'd all be sitting around, drinking up a bottle of Old Irish Rose. So I'd just sit with them and soak up their stories. 'Course, it didn't matter if I was any good; everybody was drunk."

In longstanding musical tradition, the next step in La Botz's journey brought him to the Chicago subway system. "I started very organically, playing in the park, and then I started earning a little money playing in the subway," he recalls. "My whole repertoire was about a dozen songs. But [that's] enough to play in the subway. That's about how long the same people are around. I'd play for an hour or two of rush hour. Then I'd go hang out with Honeyboy Edwards and people like that. He was a real mentor. He would explain how things worked, and he'd tell stories about where he'd been and what he'd done."

In addition to Honeyboy Edwards, other Maxwell Street musicians, including Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis and Homesick James took La Botz under their wing. While spending time with blues players playing guitar, drinking and telling tall tales, may not have been a traditional - or parent-pleasing - education, it was a priceless one, often in unexpected ways.

"Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis was from Mississippi and he was a great guitar player. He had this thick, thick, country accent that never became a city accent. Nobody could understand him - plus, he was always drunk. I kind of ended up being his interpreter for other people.

"Trying to learn how to play is one thing, but trying to interpret what somebody is saying adds a whole other level. My feeling was to try and go straight to the emotion of the songs. So before the thought, or the words, I'd try to capture the essence of it. Playing the song note-for-note, or having all of the lyrics all exactly the same - that was sort of tertiary. I wanted to get the vibe. There were layers of understanding going on in these songs that you had to get through before you could even get to the bedrock of the meaning. Maybe the guy didn't mean anything anyways. Sometimes when you finally get there, it was like, 'what the hell is he talking about?'" La Botz shrugs. "Maybe he doesn't even know."

La Botz spent years with Davis as an ersatz personal assistant/chauffeur, driving the bluesman to subways to busk, to bars to play for drinks and the occasional festival to perform for money. Along the way La Botz picked up a serious wanderlust and started heading west. After a brief stop in Colorado, Los Angeles beckoned.

"I'd been traveling a lot and living in different places. I got this far west and ran into the ocean and couldn't get any further," he laughs. "Then I fell apart here. Drugs, alcohol and the whole thing. When I came together it turned out to be a pretty good place to be."

He also rounded out his musical chops by playing in a band as a sideman for the first time, for The Greater Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church. It was a bit of a leap for the now-Buddhist La Botz, but the education was eye opening.

"The people in the church were so great. They weren't afraid of the energy that's building up inside of them because of the music. So they let it out. That's when people start shouting. People in bars are so uncomfortable with that energy. There's less self-consciousness in church."

While La Botz was playing in church, he was also playing around Los Angeles, and even auditioned for the frontman role in Velvet Revolver currently occupied by Scott Weiland. He recorded a few records and started developing a regular fan base. And, being L.A., those fans included people like actor Steve Buscemi and actress Brooke Smith. Before he knew it, he was appearing in the occasional indie film - like "Ghost World," where he leads the world's worst blues band.

"I was a drama major in a high school for fine arts, but I dropped out after a year. But people in the film business, some of them were starting to be regulars at my gigs. They were like, 'This guy's a character. He might fit in.' So they brought me in for occasional projects. The films are few and far between, but every once and a while, something comes along."

The films are on hold for a while. La Botz is determined to make a bigger mark in the music world. After a string of shows in Los Angeles, he's heading up to San Francisco in February. Then he's off to play in Belgium, Holland and Sweden - where he has a following already.

So what if Jake La Botz becomes the first American blues-gospel-rock singer songwriter/guitarist to break in Sweden before hitting it big Stateside. For this musician, there's a certain amount of irony. "I started playing in parks for drunk guys," he says. "Now I play in bars for drunk guys. It's all part of the circle."

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SAN LUIS OBISPO NEW TIMES
MUSIC
By Glen Starkey
Help me rename La Botz

Jake La Botz needs a nickname. I mean, come on! He cut his teeth on Chicago's Maxwell Street with first generation bluesmen such as Homesick James and Honeyboy Edwards. So, what's it going to be? Can't call him Lightnin', 'cause that's taken. Blind Melon doesn't apply. Pretty Boy La Botz might work, but his music is too dark and edgy for that moniker to really say anything about him.

Tell you what, why don't you offer me some suggestions and I'll forward them to La Botz. Or you can suggest them to him personally this Saturday, Feb. 19 when he plays a 7:30 p.m. show at the Santa Margarita Community Hall.

Last month La Botz's All Soul and No Money hit record stores, and it's a swirling mix of Chicago and Mississippi Hill Country blues with alt-rock and punk sensibilities. For instance, wouldn't Frank Zappa have seemed right at home singing La Botz's "Follow Me Down?" Why yes, he would. A few more clanging pots and "Getting Closer" or the title track "All Soul and No Money" might have been found on a Tom Waits album.

La Botz's movie-star good looks and friendship with veteran character actor Steve Buscemi landed him roles in a couple of indie films, including the cult classic "Ghost World." La Botz also joined a gospel group at his South L.A. church, and auditioned for Velvet Revolver but didn't make the cut. Too bad for them. Good new for us, because Jake "Broke Knife" La Botz is one ripe tomato. Broke Knife? Hey, that ain't bad.

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SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL
February 16, 2005
Today's Best Bets
Jake La Botz

The Chicago native has gotten a lot done in his short life - he's performed regularly with Jimmy Davis, appeared in the movie 'Ghost World,' written obituaries, worked at a graphite factory and will appear in the upcoming movie 'Lonesome Jim' with Liv Tyler and Casey Affleck. La Botz moved to Los Angeles in the '90s and found himself acting with the likes of Mickey Rourke. He now combines influences of Mississippi's hill country, Chicago blues, punk rock and Americana in lively performances.

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HIGH BIAS
JAKE LABOTZ
All Soul and No Money (Joseph Street)

All Soul and No Money is probably the best debut album I have had the pleasure of listening to. Jake La Botz, who actually spent time as a street musician in Chicago, writes songs in the style of fellow Chicagoan G. Love. Alternating between smokehouse blues and sing-song lullabies like "All Soul and No Money," we are taken on a tour of a hundred years of music-from blues to bluegrass, the record packs in the influences. La Botz seethes the Chicago blues sound, picking his way through caverns of emotion on tracks like "Used to Be" and "The Cold is Coming On." He even manages a gospel sound on "It's Gonna Rain Again," on which La Botz is joined by the Chambers Brothers. But the best song is by far "The Ballad of the Unknown Bluesman," a killer blue note with La Botz demonstrating a million miles of range.

Lance Looper

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GRAFFITI
Jake La Botz All Soul and No Money
Joseph Street.

A transplanted Chicagoan living in LA, La Botz is a musician/actor who put in time on Chicago's Maxwell Street as well as LA's Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church band. The tunes are, by turns, easy-going blue-eyed soul, capped off with La Botz's distinctive voice "Lost Child"; downhome folk "Used To Be" and "Love Advice From Grandma," which showcases a nice flute part; and gospel-soul. The quirky title track, features a slinky, herky-jerky beat and honking baritone sax that ends up with a bit more attitude than substance. Ditto with the gospel track "It's Gonna Rain Again" although he fares much better on the raucous "I Gotta Write to Know Jesus". But La Botz's lazy and compelling drawl which brings to mind John Hiatt - with a dash of Tom Waits will draw you in on tracks like the dark story song "The Grey" and the solo acoustic "And Keep on Praying." "Getting Closer" is a rolling, bluesy Hot Tuna-styled cut driven by an over-zealous drum track. But if the production mainly, the booming snare drum is a bit heavy-handed, it's not enough to obscure La Botz’s seasoned perspective. In the acting department, La Botz did something of a cameo in "Ghost World" with friend Steve Buscemi playing a musician, as well as "Animal Factory" and "Lonesome Jim."
--Alpo

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Bluesman La Botz keeps making it his own way
May 13, 2005

BY JEFF JOHNSON STAFF REPORTER

Jake La Botz learned to play the blues at Chicago's traditional training ground, the Maxwell Street market. But when it became too cold to stay in his "apartment on wheels," a Chevrolet Apache pickup, he headed out West, eventually finding a record deal and a second career as an actor in Tinseltown.

Success hasn't changed La Botz, who grew up in Uptown and Lake View. He's returning to this blues capital for a weeklong series of shows beginning tonight. He's still the same gravel-voiced troubadour, covered head to toe with tattoos, who writes songs of yearning and loss and life's underbelly.

His debut album on Joseph Street Records, "All Soul and No Money," reveals La Botz's music to be a work in progress, reminiscent of early Springsteen in that he throws a lot of words against the wall -- and some of them stick. And there's more than enough wit and wisdom when he gets it right to keep folks coming back for seconds. It's not the easiest music to market, though.

"I've given up on goals," La Botz offers. "I feel like I sort of embrace the disappointment of the music business and also embrace the fact that I have to keep working on expressing my own voice. The reality, the earthiness of the situation, is that I'm going to try to keep making a living doing this, which I've been able to do somehow. I don't have any illusions of great success. I fit loosely into the blues category in that longevity really plays into it. If you hang around long enough, you get respect."

Some of Chicago's most beloved bluesmen, including Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis and David "Honeyboy" Edwards, showed La Botz respect early in his career, taking him under their wing. Davis, in particular, was a major influence.

"Maxwell Street Jimmy and I got to be friends when I was in my early 20s," La Botz recalls of the bluesman, who died in 1996. "He was originally a clown in rabbit's-foot minstrel shows. He had such a heavy accent and was such a heavy drinker that it was hard to understand what he was saying, but I think he told me he would dance on broken glass in a Hawaiian grass skirt, if I heard him correctly. He had a clown type of personality, and people thought he was just a big drunk. But he had this ability to clown on somebody in the audience when he was playing. He made a connection with that one person and brought the whole audience in."

La Botz tailors his live shows to his audience these days, doing either traditional blues and soul-blues or his original material, depending on the audience and the venue.

"I feel the more original your sound becomes, until you become established and have records out, being original is not a selling point," he says. "It's a really lonely path. Until you establish a body of work that's really your own ... a fairly open-minded crowd is either magnetized or repelled by what I do. That's why I mix it up, playing originals or old blues songs."

He has appeared in two movies with his Hollywood pal Steve Buscemi. In "Ghost World," La Botz played a member of Blueshammer, the most cliche-ridden blues band you'd never want to hear. He then was cast as a convict in the Buscemi-directed "Animal Factory," in which he ad-libbed that in wasn't too long ago when he was appearing at Rosa's Blues Lounge on the West Side of Chicago, and now he's behind bars.

Rosa's proprietor Tony Mangiullo, who appreciated the plug, recalls that La Botz was a semiregular at the club, where he would play with Davis and Rick Sherry of Devil in a Woodpile, with whom he'll appear at Rosa's on Saturday. He'll be accompanied for his Wednesday gig at Buddy Guy's Legends by drummer Kenny Smith and bassist Lou Marini. He'll also play a solo "after-work" set next Friday at Legends.

His musical career might have taken a far different path had his audition for the high-powered hard-rock outfit Velvet Revolver gone differently. He explains almost apologetically why he considered joining the band.

"What do you do when you get a call, 'Hi, I'm Slash and I heard you singing on a CD'? " La Botz says. "I thought that it was a prank phone call. It's all part of the show-biz roller-coaster scene. I get swept up in it from time-to-time by proximity. Acting in films ... I live in L.A. Part is proximity and part is temperament. The fact that he thought I might be able to sing that kind of stuff was really a compliment. I thought it might be fun to sing hard rock. I wrote some lyrics to a couple of Velvet Revolver instrumental songs and went into the studio and recorded them. I was in the running for a minute, but I wasn't quite their bag." The band eventually hired Scott Weiland, formerly of Stone Temple Pilots, and La Botz was spared from shopping for leather pants.

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