Yes, Jake La Botz’s They’re Coming For Me is a strange one but in that same delightfully curious way we find ourselves attracted to artists like Tom Waits and Captain Beefheart. La Botz has been around the block more than a few times. He grew up as a hard-luck kid in Chicago who would volunteer in theaters to be closer to the stage. He haunted libraries, seeking out books and records. He busked in the subways, spent time on Maxwell Street learning from blues greats Honeyboy Edwards and Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis. These street lessons provided a foundation for a lifetime of storytelling which La Botz leveraged into becoming a film and stage actor. That’s only a fraction of his story.
As a musician, he has a bent for fragile and half-mad characters, those he’s encountered in past travels and emulates on stage. His own unconventional life story, filled with highs and lows, is currently being adapted by La Botz and actor/writer Ian Barford as a stage musical for Steppenwolf Theater. We provide that context as a means of relating (well, not exactly) to subjects like a magic comb that can save the world, a bank robber who moans gospel hymns, and a confessional from Bigfoot himself. Perhaps some other aspects of his crazy true-life odysseys provide more perspective whether it be racing across the Midwest in stolen cars, finding refuge in the early ‘80s punk scene and tattoo parlors because his music didn’t fit in bars, or playing guitar in an all-black church in L.A. Somehow, he also emerged from years-long heroin addiction 20 years ago to find himself writing music and resting from the road. He now teaches meditation at home and in prisons, trying to give back.
The album was recorded in Chicago with his good friend, producer and bassist Jimmy Sutton of JD McPherson’s in a gathering of some of the city’s best roots musicians including engineer and multi-instrumentalist Alex Hall and Scott Ligon of NRBQ, with vocal cameos from McPherson and George Sluppick. It’s a mix of country blues, gospel, ‘60s pop and ‘70s rock n’ roll. We hear La Botz’s blues style coloring many tracks and get it deeply in the bonus tracks of “The Comb” and “Shaken and Taken.”
This follows the collaboration between Sutton and La Botz for 2017’s Sunnyside. According to La Botz this one flows more freely, has more simpatico playing, and finds the right balance between sacred and the profane. It’s certainly filled with humorous lyrics and weird anecdotes. Here are a few examples:
- “Johnnybug the Superglue” – “Johnnybug the superglue/Try not to leave any residue/if you want to keep your tattoo/from jumping ship.”
- “Bankrobber’s Lament” is a takeoff on the well-known gospel tune “Working on a Building” with lyrics like – “I’ve been working on a building/Though I know it just ain’t right/I’ll keep working on a building/Every day and every night.”
- “Hey Bigfoot” –“Went to the unemployment office the other day/Had the nerve to ask me if I’m from the US of A/Said ,” Are you of such and such of such a race? What are you? Episcopalian? Australian? Illegal alien”
Surely there are some bizarre songs that are tempting to read into. La Botz is cleverly sarcastic and very aware of contemporary and social issues. Check out “Nashville, Nashville” and “The Terrible Game” in addition to those above. This album has staying power. It’s a good kind of weird.
