Hot off their extended tour with Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe, guitar legends Los Straitjacketsreturn to the Twin Cities for a special “Under The Canopy” performance.  

 

Los Straitjackets are the leading practitioners of the lost art of the guitar instrumental.  Using the music of The Ventures and The Shadows, and with Link Wray and Dick Dale as a jumping off point, the band has taken their unique, high-energy brand of original rock & roll around the world.

Though known for their extensive catalog of guitar instrumentals, they’ve collaborated thru the years with vocalists such as Nick Lowe, Big Sandy (of Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys), Deke Dickerson, Raul Malo (of The Mavericks), Reverend Horton Heat, Dave Alvin, and Cesar Rosas (of Los Lobos).

Clad in their trademark Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling masks, the “Jackets” have delivered their trademark guitar licks to 16 albums, thousands of concerts and dozens of film and TV shows. Their CDs, coupled with their relentless touring, have made them, in all likelihood, the most popular band of the surf/instro revival.  Viva Los Straitjackets!

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Jake La Botz spent his early days studying under the last of the city’s pre-war era bluesmen. He began releasing his own albums of roots-drenched music in 2000 and would go on to spend the next two decades amassing a litany of critical acclaim as he worked his way up from playing street corners and tattoo parlors to sharing bills with luminaries like Ray Charles, Etta James, Dr. John, and Mavis Staples. When he’s not on the road, La Botz can be often be found onscreen (he’s appeared in everything from True Detective to On the Road and even starred in the stage musical Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, written by Stephen King and John Mellencamp) or teaching meditation in prisons, Buddhist Centers, and living rooms around the country. 

 

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.