The Boss Hoss - Low Voltage

While Boss Hoss have been very successful in their native Germany with their Country and Western cowpunk covers of everyone from Outkast to Britney Spears they are often viewed with overt contempt from music fans.
Personally I've never really been sure why.
On a daily basis I could reel off a long list of acts who piss me off, but Boss Hoss wouldn't be on it.
So while bands like Hayseed Dixie manage go from strength to strength and The Baseballs and Overtones grace the UK charts with nary a blink of derision Boss Hoss are still struggling to be taken seriously. (Well as seriously as a band doing country styled covers could be taken.)
Their homeland success has however allowed then to make a living, and even get to the stage of releasing a greatest hits package, but not one that you would expect.
On “Low Voltage” the band decided that instead of treading water with a compilation they would record the hits acoustically with a 30 strong orchestra backing them up.
In doing so they may raise some eyebrows, but with a bit of luck a few converts may be found.
Strangely enough on much of this they sound like Alabama 3 without the beats if you can wrap your ears around that concept.
To be blunt though I'm of the opinion that if the listener can leave the misguided snobbishness at the door that goes hand in hand with the claim of being a “real” music lover then there is much on this album to impress.
More than just a novelty act these guys can play and have an ear for an arrangement that most musicians would struggle to emulate.
While some people would be happy with speeding a song up or slowing it down, Boss Hoss strip them down and then rebuild them in the style they want to put across.
Probably harder to do than most of us appreciate.
The only downside to this is that their lack of popularity over here in the UK will mean that while we occasionally get to see the guys live there will be no chance of catching them backed by the orchestra.
A great shame in my opinion.