Today, Jake La Botz shares “Let It Fall,” final single off his upcoming album Hair On Fire, out on September 9, 2022. As the album opener, the driving “Let It Fall” sets the stage, with La Botz questioning what would happen if the whole world were able to let go of the disguises we wear on a daily basis and instead face each other with total honesty and vulnerability. “Will you let it fall?” he asks over a muted guitar and chiming piano. “Will you let it all wash away?”
La Botz has also announced his exciting Tattoo Across America Tour, where he’ll be playing in mostly local tattoo shops across the country, with a few traditional venues and some other unusual places along the way, including a homeless shelter in Boise, a “Blues, Tattoos & Recovery” seminar in Indianapolis, and the Outsiders House Museum in Tulsa, which the executive director for, and rapper, Danny Boy O'Connor (House of Pain/La Coka Nostra) personally booked La Botz for. See full list of tour dates below.
Stream/purchase “Let It Fall” HERE
“I don’t know if this relates to being a performer,” La Botz tells DittyTV about the track, “but there seems to me to be something ‘performative’ in the way people (all of us) present ourselves – our opinions, how we want to be seen in the world. All kinds of masks that we wear whether or not we are professional performers. My question here is what’s under there, and what happens if we let the covers fall away? Or are we forced to give them up in the midst of a world that is coming apart at the seams?”
“Let It Fall” follows previous singles “Hope The Sunshine” and title track, “Hair On Fire,” which Holler said, “Imagine the gospel fervour of Pastor T.L. Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir mixed up with the energetic neo-folk of Arcade Fire and the contemporary rootsiness of The Lumineers and you might be getting somewhere close to the sound that La Botz has pulled together on ‘Hair On Fire’... It’s both heavily indebted and oddly anachronistic. A loose fusion of floor thumping country, hand-clapping gospel folk and low down and dirty delta blues, as unexpected as it is familiar, that lifts up and shakes out your soul."
“There’s a saying in Buddhism,” La Botz, who is also a meditation teacher, explains of the title track, “that one should practice as if their hair is on fire, which means there should be an urgency towards using the tools of meditation to open up and see what is. The message is: life is short and, if you want to wake up and discover what it’s about, now is the time."
Like other spiritually motivated songwriters before him, Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison to name a few, the two streams of songwriting and spirituality have very much come together for La Botz. Prior to Covid, he taught meditation in prisons, Buddhist centers, living rooms, and elsewhere, ever looking to meet people where they’re at and to share what meditation has to offer. For La Botz both meditation and music are very important points of connection with others, and sometimes his music fans even end up practicing meditation with him. During the pandemic he has continued to focus on his two primary loves the best way he can - teaching meditation over Zoom for people around the world, and writing and recording songs to share with others.
Over the years, Jake’s work has been praised by Rolling Stone, World Cafe, No Depression, Folk Alley, Atwood Magazine, American Songwriter, PopMatters, Glide, Bluegrass Situation, and many more.
La Botz recently signed with Mongrel Music for North American booking, and announced a handful of tour dates for this Summer/Fall, including his Tattoo Across America Tour. See full list of dates below, and ticket info HERE.
Hair On Fire tracklist:
1. Let It Fall
2. Killing for a Living
3. Hair on Fire
4. Hope the Sunshine
5. It Looked Just Like a Gun
6. Broken Birds
7. I Don’t Want It
8. Who Will You Love
9. First McDonnell’s on the Moon
10. Getting Ready to Roll
11. Mirror in Me
12. Last Mission on Earth
Tour Dates:
08/29: Saint Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
08/30: Saint Paul, MN @ Minnesota State Fair
Tattoo Across America Tour Dates:
09/07: Kansas City, MO @ Electric Influence Tattoo
09/09: Springville, UT @ Buffalo Nickel Tattoo
09/10: Salt Lake City, UT @ Piper Down Pub (sponsored by Utah Rockabilly)
09/11: Boise, ID @ Interfaith Sanctuary Emergency Shelter (private show sponsored by Betsy's Cookie Co.)
09/14: Portland, OR @ Freaks and Geeks Tattoo
09/15: Kirkland, WA @ Under the Needle Tattoo
09/16: Friday Harbor, WA @ Under the Needle Tattoo
09/17: Salem, OR @ All American Tattoo
09/21: Los Angeles, CA @ Redwood Bar
09/22: Fallbrook, CA @ Little C’s Tattoo Parlor
09/23: San Diego, CA @ Absolute Tattoo
09/24: Phoenix, AZ @ Old West Tattoo
09/27: Tulsa, OK @ The Outsiders House Museum (sponsored by Danny Boy O'Connor)
09/28: Dallas, TX @ Elm St Tattoo
09/29: Austin, TX @ The Austin Tattoo Co.
09/30: Port Neches, TX @ The Avenue Coffee & Cafe
10/06: South Shore, KY @ Snake Oil Tattoo
10/07: Cincinnati, OH @ One Shot Tattoo
10/08: Indianapolis, IN @ Yellow Rose Inn (Blues, Tattoos, and Recovery sponsored by Mental Health America of Indiana)
10/09: Milwaukee, WI @ “The Loft” (public house party)
10/13: Anoka, MN @ Wingnut Tattoo
