Johnny Cash Mash-Up With Carisa Brown

/ˈmaSHˌəp/

noun: mashup

• a mixture or fusion of disparate elements.
• a recording created by digitally combining and synchronizing instrumental tracks with vocal tracks from two or more different songs.

Mashups have become increasingly popular in music since the 90’s.

You've been on the dance floor when the DJ combined two familiar songs in a way that surprisingly worked!

YouTube artists and music makers are now sharing their masterful creations, marrying songs in ways never imagined by the original songwriters. The result is a new species of music where the best elements of original songs we already love multiply into works of art. 

My client Carisa Brown loves creating song mash-ups, though she came to me having never before made one. With an open mind and a willingness to try, it didn’t take long for Carisa’s vision of a mashup with two Johnny Cash songs to take form.

“Hurt”, was originally written and recorded by the rock band Nine Inch Nails and recorded by Johnny Cash in 2003.  The other song, "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is a traditional American folk song recorded by Cash in 2006. 

Where did the idea come from? What was the process? Here are Carisa’s thoughts in her own words. 

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR THIS MASH-UP? 

The mashup started because I wanted to combine two Johnny Cash songs. I love his voice! It's so deep and powerful, I always think I want to sing like that. After trying to learn "Never Enough" originally sung by Loren Aldrich, I thought okay, now let's see how low I can go.

WHAT WAS THE CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE?

I started playing around with the story first. How can you combine these two songs together to form a logical storyline, and we'll deal with the musicality of it later (sorry Annie). I had a rough outline and presented it to Annie, and then we moved some pieces around to make it fit the piano arrangement. 

It came from story first, musicality second, and deciding how to sing it third. 

Playing over the Hurt chords, you could just feel the emotion, so deciding how to make it my own and unique was the easy part. We knew the story and let the piano lead the rest. 

ANNIE, ON CREATING THE PIANO ARRANGEMENT

I did some research by listening to mashups, so that I could get a feel for how they made them work. 

Carisa led the way vocally, while I played around on the piano.  We tried a few different iterations and eventually came up with an arrangement we liked.  After that, I called composer and arranger Lynn Hutchinson, to take my piano idea and make it even better.  Lynn did just that.  Sending me sheet music with a dynamic piano part, which still left room for Carisa’s voice to soar.

We spent an afternoon at my home with videographer Stephanie James and created the video you’re about to see.

My husband Marcus Ashley, shared his expertise mixing and mastering the final track. Annette Betting-Fuentes did our video editing.

Check Out The Full Video Here! 

CARISA, WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW? 

I am currently recording some mashups and covers my friend and I made in his living room in Echo Park. It's not professional by any means, but it's by far the best part of my week. I think we have  five mashups at this point and we're finally starting to record them. 

It's mostly duets of the songs that got us in our feels in middle school: Neyo, Usher,  Omarion ect. We just covered a Billie Ellish and Khalid song that is incredibly beautiful and chilling. It's been stuck in my head for months. 

Learning how to sing with another person, knowing when to let them shine, when to harmonize, when to breakout and do your own thing has been a really fun challenge.