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Artist
Jake La Botz
12+ albums
bluesrocksoulUSAchicago
about
Jake La Botz (born November 23, 1968 in Chicago, IL) is an American blues singer, songwriter, actor and meditation teacher. Raised in the city of Chicago, La Botz is said to have been conceived while his parents listened to a record by Texas bluesman and sharecropper Mance Lipscomb. In growing up, he was exposed to Chicago's thriving multicultural music scene early on. He attended public school through the ninth grade and then discovered punk rock. The punk scene was a natural place for a misfit kid to end up in the 80s. He identified with the emotional rawness of the music and got a feeling of belonging somewhere. He later got that same feeling hanging around with some of the bluesmen. La Botz moved around the country working construction jobs, hanging out at punk shows, hobo camps and libraries. At 16 he started banging on a guitar... Whenever back in Chicago, he spent his Sunday mornings hanging around and occasionally busking at the famed westside flea market on Maxwell Street. There, he got to know the reigning bluesman on the scene, Maxwell Street Jimmy Davis who was to become a close friend and mentor. Still a teenager at the time, he would sneak into clubs to hear other blues legends such as Homesick James and Honeyboy Edwards, who he later spent a great deal of time with both on and off the stage. With the encouragement of his mentors, Jake began to play professionally. He worked the bars, streets and train tunnels of Chicago. Sporadically, he would venture back
