It all started with a suggestion by one of my Facebook friends and followers. I guess you could call it a dare of sorts. He knew I was doing a lot of stuff with mashups these days, so he pointed me in the direction of Spiderbait's "Black Betty" and asked me if I could do something with the 2004 hard rock hit. I was unaware of this particular version of that oft-covered American folk song, but I knew of its Leadbelly and Ram Jam versions.

When I heard the Spiderbait cover for the first time, I figured it could work with a country-blues-rock treatment. I imagined the "Black Betty" of my mashup as a Wild West/steampunk antiheroine, like a sci-fi/fantasy version of Annie Oakley or Calamity Jane. Inspired by this idea, I added selections from the soundtracks of the Japanese video games "Wild Arms IV" and "Metal Saga", as well as the British singers Adele and KT Tunstall's bluesy breakthrough hit singles.

This mashup is for you, Chris W.! Thanks a million for putting that crazy idea in my head.

Here are all the songs I used in this mashup, in order of appearance:

Masato Koda - Buckeye Station (from "Wild Arms IV")
Spiderbait - Black Betty
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Satoshi Kadokura - Staff Roll (from "Metal Saga")
KT Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree