Jake La Botz has shared “Let It Fall,” the 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?”

“I don’t know if this relates to being a performer,” La Botz says 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.

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.

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

Photo Courtesy: Rik Van de Wiel