Hot on the heels of his 51st birthday, Jake La Botz has packed a lot of living into that half century, acting in films and on stage, learning the blues from Chicago legends Honeyboy Edwards and Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis, teaching meditation to prisoners and kicking drug addiction. Navigating through the ’80s punk scene, landing in Nashville and returning to Chicago to cut his ninth full-length, the results reflect his range of experience. Rootsy with a theatricality that avoids faltering into minstrelsy and with strong singer-songwriter bona fides, in an earlier era, he would’ve been a cult artist struggling on a major label, but in 2019 he’s releasing They’re Coming for Me on Jimmy Sutton’s Hi-Style Records. It’s a good fit.
Jake La Botz has a whole lot of records out that I’ve somehow managed to not hear since he debuted in 1999 with Original Soundtrack to My Nightmare. The extensive background is palpable on his latest, as They’re Coming for Me is not the album of a fresh-faced newbie, though it still has the spark that I often associate with more youthful performers.
The artist successfully walks a dangerous line as the album progresses, in that he successfully tangles with the roots impulse without straining for a weathered effect and simultaneously doesn’t impact the ear like some anachronistic relic. Contemporary touches are frequent as the disc progresses, with the opening title track settling into a country-tinged rockish singer-songwriter zone.
There’s enough blues in the cut’s equation to drive home that La Botz isn’t a replicator; instead, he’s productively absorbed the stuff. With that said, the next track “Johnnybag the Superglue” radiates some Calexico similarities, like if they were enlisted to back up Tom Waits, which brings us to how La Botz effectively conjures a likeness to that troubadour of bent Americana but without sounding like a copyist.
In fact, La Botz’s tone of voice can remind me more of Dr. John, though subtly so. “Without the Weight” is just a solid example of singer-songwriter-ism with ample instrumental kick and a nice low-end bass resonance that points to the contempo gestures referenced above. But the thing about songwriters who sing their own tunes is that they are often introspective, and La Botz diverts from this tendency a fair amount on this record, with “The Bankrobber’s Lament” a good example (the accompanying bio for the LP mentions a few stolen cars, but I’m guessing he’s never actually held up a savings and loan).
The nice thing is how this bankrobber’s story eschews straight fictive reportage and underlines La Botz’s literary interests. Musically, the saloon piano at song’s close is a sweet touch that’s not overdone. It contrasts pretty sharply with the electric keyboard in the following selection “Snow Angel,” a tune that establishes that if a blues and roots maven, the artist has a few borderline AOR moves in his arsenal, and that’s alright.
Actually, it supports La Botz’s stature as a non-imitator. When he does flaunt the gritty chutzpah, it’s with some eccentricity, penning a song from the perspective of Bigfoot (that would be “Hey Bigfoot”) and rounding up some backup singers, mallets on vibes and a hint of swamp funk. “The Terrible Game” keeps the backing vocals, adds some organ and reinforces the stated non-hackneyed nature of the blues influence.
“Grace of the Leaves” downshifts into fingerpicker’s territory and highlights the coffeehouse folky side in La Botz’s approach, though support voices once more add to the musicality of They’re Coming for Me’s overall gist. The cut also drives home lead singing that’s smooth without disturbing the set’s rootsy thrust. From there, “Nashville, Nashville” is an obvious rumination on the music industry and how La Botz has likely been told more than once that he doesn’t fit.
Hey, he may not comfortably fall into someone else’s commercial scheme of things, but the reality is that he’s destined to please those with musical interests ranging across the territory covered above. One of his biggest strengths is his ability to whip off a pretty tune and then imbue with instrumental and vocal heft, as he does in They’re Coming for Me’s vinyl finale “Are We Saying Goodbye?”
The two bonus tracks, “This Comb” and “Shaken and Taken,” undertake a double dip into gospel blues testifying with a ringing guitar tone and a general aura in the first cut that should stoke listeners who fondly remember Fat Possum’s days as a blues label; the second has a little more churchy polish. Altogether, if Jake La Botz is a little too diverse for the categorization concerns of the big companies, he fits like a glove into Hi-Style Records’ scheme of things as the label underscores how the Windy City’s interest in contempo roots action is thriving in 2019.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
