Joshua Wright – “The Devil In The Bottle” & “Hard Sun” Mashup

Influenced by classic artists such as Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, and Waylon Jennings, Franklin County, Virginia native Joshua Wright is a talented singer-songwriter who first picked up the guitar at the age of 12. By 15, he was already performing at local events and nursing homes with his band. On September 11th, 2022, Wright released his debut single “The Devil In The Bottle”, a deeply personal track that explores his struggles with addiction. Wright and his crew took the single project to the next level when they engineered a mashup of “The Devil In The Bottle” with “Hard Sun” by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder. The song was covered by a Vivi, a female artist from Germany, and has already raked in thousands of views across their socials and YouTube.

The original version of “The Devil In The Bottle”, is exactly what you would expect from an outlaw country artist, with its raw, rugged and independent spirit, as it narrates the songwriter’s struggles and inner demons.

To be honest, the outlaw country movement is unfairly overlooked in the actual musical scene where polished pop tropes have invaded the genre. Joshua Wright’s performance is eloquent proof of authentic country’s musical sensibility, alternating strong vocals with sincere lyrics to form a captivating musical breath.

Serious critics would consider “The Devil In The Bottle” a great piece of work, highlighting it as one of those marvelously pure country songs able to ignore the contaminated stylistic changes the genre has been through in recent times.

Moreover, Joshua Wright gives the song his mature voice, adding weight to the lyrical context and the song as a whole. Right from the first bars of this track, you’re sonically experiencing what purists would call ‘real’ country.

Having said that, Joshua Wright is a forward-thinking artist with more than one trick up his sleeve. He can be a pure country boy and then mash things up in the most surprising way. However, at the same time, he is astute enough to not contaminate his original version of “The Devil In The Bottle“, which remains a standalone piece of pure country art.

Instead, Wright and his Joshua Wright Productions, Inc unit, build an entirely new track, by mashing his original song with Eddie Vedder’s “Hard Sun”. What comes out of the studio blender is a hybrid mix of tormented storytelling, soulful grit and raw emotion.

Vocalist Vivi puts her heart into the song, hitting all the right notes and creating an emotional journey that adds another layer of depth to this already intriguing mashup. Vivi’s extraordinary capacity in painting pictures with Joshua Wright words is perfectly exemplified across Eddie Vedder’s musical backdrop, where you can picture every stage of the narrative. Vedder and Wright’s mashup is a great example of how to powerfully tell a story in song.

Joshua Wright sounds like he is going to be a remarkable force in music. He shows this with the original “The Devil In The Bottle”, where he flaunts many of his skills, and in the mashup with Eddie Vedder’s “Hard Sun”. Two very different sounding tracks, aimed at very different audiences, yet equally impressive in their conception, production and execution.