Jake La Botz Draws on His Grandfather's Tales for Animated 'Hobo On a Passenger Train' Video

"So what we have is this really cool, kind of transcendental hobo on this ride through space and time. (McWatters) really pulled it off, better than anything I ever imagined for it."

The video also lets La Botz, in a way, live out his own hobo fantasies. "My grandfather has the best stories in the world," he says. "When I was a kid, all I wanted to be Jinx Putnam. I did not ride freight trains but I did hitchhike and groveled a lot, sold cars, lots of different things. I wanted to experience the world as a young teenager, just like I knew a lot of the old blues guys did. That was where my heart was at. So I did a lot of traveling... and I think in this (song) the hobo is sort of a voice of reason, speaking about what it means to be free or something like that."

The "Hobo on a Passenger Train" video puts a cap on the campaign for Sunnyside, which won an Independent Music Award for Best Alt Country Album. La Botz is still touring -- in the U.S. now with European dates during October -- and he recently launched a PledgeMusic campaign to help finance his next album, which he plans to start recording during November at High Style Studios in Chicago with Sunnyside collaborator Jimmy Sutton.

"We've got some songs," says La Botz, who hopes to have the album out next year. "I don't want to scare anybody, but Jimmy says there's a couple of my songs that have a little of a disco vibe. And we've got some songs about Big Foot trying to get back into the headlines. The songs are getting a little weirder, but they're also really groovy and rocking. I don't know how much to say about it yet, but I feel like there's really no choice but to be completely myself -- whatever that means at any given time."