over the last few months, i’ve blogged about derek webb’s latest innovative project called democracy vol. 1. several months ago, fans could cast votes for up to 12 songs that they wanted webb to cover. then, the 12 songs receiving the most votes would be covered by webb for the album. the album will then be recorded over the span of 2010, with 1 track being recorded and released each month. over the past 3 months, webb released the first three tracks, which was the beatles’ while my guitar gently weeps, a so-so version of coldplay’s fix you and a pretty good version of bob dylan’s the times they are a-changin’.

instead of releasing the the full list of tracks, webb plans to reveal each track month-by-month. and yesterday, we found out the fourth one.

april’s track (yeah, it’s may…) is none other than gnarls barkley’s who’s gonna save my soul from their 2008 release, the odd couple. over the last 5 years or so, gnarls barkley has been one of my favorite bands. beyond the success of the breakout single, crazy, their two albums are basically genius and there’s genuinely nothing that serves as a fair comparison. so, i was excited to see derek webb choose to cover them (well…i guess he had to do it based on voting…).

after offering a great version of while my guitar gently weeps back in january, the two following tracks weren’t, by any means, disappointments, but just not what i’ve come to expect. with this gnarls barkley cover, though, derek webb has certainly one-upped himself. it’s a great version, with just the right instrumentation and a conviction to the lyrics that’s very believable. (i’m sure others have spoken these lyrics about him over the course of his last several albums…) 🙂

so, check it out for yourself. here’s the track.

derek webb / who’s gonna save my soul: