Hobo tradition is an element and parcel of Jake La Botz’s life; His grandfather Jinx Putnam, was, in any case a “bona fide hobo,” using the rails and afterward sharing his adventures together with his grandson.
So it is not stunning that La Botz had one thing particular in thoughts for the brand new video for “Hobo on a Passenger Train” — a gritty observe from La Botz’s award-winning 2017 album Sunnyside — which premieres solely under.
The inventively animated and trippy clip options La Botz in hobo mode having fun with his personal adventures, together with on a prepare that flies across the solar (belief us, it makes extra sense to see than to examine). It was put collectively by the Albany couple Colleen and Tom McWatters, the latter an enormous La Botz fan who’s traveled to take a look at the Chicago troubadour’s gigs. “Tom’s a creative kind man and he makes these cease animation movies,” La Botz tells Billboard. “I put out on Facebook sooner or later to see if considered one of my director-type mates would possibly wish to make a video for ‘Hobo.’ Tom hit me and mentioned, ‘Look, man, I do cease animation. I’ve bought this concept…’ So we talked about it a bit of bit and I bought actual excited.
“So what we’ve is that this actually cool, sort of transcendental hobo on this trip by means of house and time. (McWatters) actually pulled it off, higher than something I ever imagined for it.”
The video additionally lets La Botz, in a manner, reside out his personal hobo fantasies. “My grandfather has the most effective tales on the earth,” he says. “When I used to be a child, all I wished to be Jinx Putnam. I didn’t trip freight trains however I did hitchhike and groveled loads, offered vehicles, a lot of various things. I wished to expertise the world as a younger teenager, identical to I knew lots of the outdated blues guys did. That was the place my coronary heart was at. So I did lots of touring… and I believe on this (track) the hobo is form of a voice of purpose, talking about what it means to be free or one thing like that.”
The “Hobo on a Passenger Train” video places a cap on the marketing campaign for Sunnyside, which received an Independent Music Award for Best Alt Country Album. La Botz remains to be touring — within the U.S. now with European dates throughout October — and he lately launched a PledgeMusic marketing campaign to assist finance his subsequent album, which he plans to begin recording throughout November at High Style Studios in Chicago with Sunnyside collaborator Jimmy Sutton.
“We’ve bought some songs,” says La Botz, who hopes to have the album out subsequent 12 months. “I do not wish to scare anyone, however Jimmy says there’s a few my songs which have a little of a disco vibe. And we have some songs about Big Foot making an attempt to get again into the headlines. The songs are getting a bit of weirder, however they’re additionally actually groovy and rocking. I do not understand how a lot to say about it but, however I really feel like there’s actually no alternative however to be fully myself — no matter which means at any given time.”
