The Bosshoss – God loves cowboys

On 3rd November, German band The BossHoss will release the album ‘God Loves Cowboys’ to coincide with their appearance on Motörhead’s UK tour.  If you’ve never heard The BossHoss before then you’re unlikely to be expecting a band that’s quite so unique to be supporting Motorhead.  Their music can best be described as Cowboy rock, although their music includes so much more than Rock with a cowboy theme – it’s a real mix of rock, pop, metal, blues, country and more.
when I saw them at Download this year they were one of the bands that really stood out as being totally different.  The band have been around for a decade and are very popular in Germany, selling over 1.5 million records there and regularly appearing at festivals such as Wacken Open Air, Rick Im Park and Rock Am Ring.

It’s an unusual album – it’s not a new studio album or a live album, so you’d assume it’s a Greatest Hits album, but it’s not that either.  Instead it’s designed to give an idea of what to expect from their live shows as it includes songs that regularly appear in their sets, as well as some of the  rockier songs from their 10 year career.  The album includes 14 of their own songs along with two cover versions – Motörhead’s “Killers’ and Cameo’s ‘Word Up’.

The band contains seven members, and for the Motorhead tour will be joined by a three-piece Mariachi band – I think I can safely say that this will be the first time anyone has seen a Mariachi band on stage on a Motorhead tour.

Four of the tracks here are taken from their most recent stdio album, “Flames of fame”, and include my personal favourite, “Bullpower”.  Along with “Bullpower”, tracks such as “Whatever”, “God loves cowboys” and “Stallion Batallion” are all great songs that I hope they play on the Motorhead tour.

The cover of “Killers” is likely to shock and probably offend some hardcore Motorhead fans with it’s more Country sound making it very different to the original, but if you’re a bit more open minded then you’re likely to enjoy this cover.  It’s a song that unless you recognise the lyrics then you probably wouldnt realise was a Motorhead cover when you hear it.  It’s nice to hear bands doing a cover and giving it an new twist rather than slavishly copying the original, so for me this version is a winner.

The Cameo cover is a lot more recognisable – it’s such a well known song that it would be hard to do a version that people don’t recognise.  It’s a fast version with plenty of guitar and a Rock/Country feel to it.

I think this is a great album – The BossHoss albums aren’t widely available in the UK and this album serves as a good introduction to the band.  Despite being very different to Motorhead, I think they’re likely to win quite a few UK fans on this tour, so for those fans this is a good album to get.

Track listing:

1. Bullpower.
2. Whatever.
3. Liberty Of Action.
4. God Loves Cowboys.
5. Do It.
6. Stallion Battalion.
7. Shake & Shout.
8. Backdoor Man.
9. Don’t Gimme That.
10. My Personal Song.
11. Keep On Dancing.
12. My Way.
13. Last Day (Do Or Die).
14. Break Free.
15. Killers.
16. Word Up

Motörhead, The Damned and The BossHoss play the O2 Apollo Manchester on 4th November, Birmingham NIA on 6th November and London’s SSE Wembley Arena on 8th November.

To Pre Order ‘God Loves Cowboys’  http://bit.ly/1xhI8ju