I genuinely love a good cover song. When done well, they can shine a completely new light on a great song, and also provide a frame of reference for understanding the stylings of a new artist. I'm not saying that every cover song is great, of course. Most are actually pretty terrible. However, it seems like there's a fairly simple formula for creating a good cover song: first, the song actually has to be outstanding. Second, the artist covering it needs to be outstanding. Third, the artist covering the song needs to put their own mark on the song - copping the entire arrangement is just cheesy. This formula is what gave us such gems as Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends", Aretha Franklin's "Respect", and Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby McGee". Are these songs better than the original? I certainly can't answer that in any sort of quantifiable way, but I think the songs themselves take on another layer of excellence because these great covers exist.

In keeping with my theory, I've assembled a list of ten great covers of Bob Marley songs. Bob Marley is, in my estimation, one of the greatest songwriters of all time. His songs about love, peace, justice and the human condition are legendary. As such, he's also one of the most covered artists of all time. Some of these covers are absolutely outstanding, and fulfill all of my requirements for a great cover. Most of these covers fall somewhere between "acceptable" and "terrible". A few are absolutely horrifying; for example, one cover that came nowhere near this top ten list was Barbra Streisand's cover of "Guava Jelly". Yes, it exists. Yes, it is the creepiest thing ever. If you must, you can listen or download the track, but the pool rule applies: do not consume food for one half hour before listening.

So, now it's your turn: what are your favorite cover songs of all time? And your least favorite? Leave a comment and let us know!

For the past couple of months, people have been sending me links here and there of world music songs about Barack Obama. Some are great, some are meh, and I'm quite sure that some are still percolating in the brains of various musicians and we'll hear them soon. Anyhow, it's not much of a surprise to me that Barack Obama has gained favor in the world music community, even among artists who are not U.S. citizens. Some of the reasons are obvious (he has African roots) and some are obscure (his platform includes a plan to create a new category of artist/musician visas whereby it will become easier for international artists to tour the States). At any rate, he does seem to be getting the vast majority of support from artists in the world at large. For the moment, I'm considering my list of songs about Barack Obama to be a bit of a work in progress, because although these songs are phenomenal, I think more great ones are probably still on the way. Have you heard any gems recently? Leave a comment and let us know! Also, let us know if you stumble across any world music songs about John McCain. I haven't found any thus far, but it's possible that one or two might exist.

Read More:

• World Music Songs About Barack Obama
• Folk Music Songs About Barack Obama
• Rap Songs About Barack Obama

Prediction: MySpace.com is on the way out. It's gotten too big, too filled with garbage, and those ridiculous glitter sparkle tags are notorious for freezing browsers. Not to mention that their search function is essentially useless, making it very difficult to discover new music in your favorite genres. Apparently, I'm not alone in thinking this, as smaller, more focused web-based communities seem to be popping up like wildflowers.

A new favorite is Uhooroo.com, a social networking site for Indian music. All sorts of genres are represented, from Classical Indian to Bollywood/Filmi, with a large representation from the bhangra community and even a couple of chutney artists thrown in for good measure. It's definitely a great place to browse for a couple of hours, and I'm sure it will only continue to improve as the word spreads.

What is your favorite social networking site for discovering world music? Leave a comment and let us know!

Thomas Mapfumo, the exiled Zimbabwean musician who is one of the world's most politically influential musicians, will be heading up the lineup at this weekend's Globalquerque festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It's a cool addition to a really cool festival, to be sure. Globalquerque is only in its fourth year, and has already taken a solid place as one of the most inclusive and important world music festivals in the United States. I've been consistently impressed with their lineup since day one - the festival's organizers, Tom Frouge and Neal Copperman, take a decidedly curatorial approach in booking the event. They've got a knack for finding a balance between the well-known and the obscure, putting talent and cultural importance well above fame. They're also not afraid to put a hip, young band on the same stage as elderly masters, nor do they draw particularly thick lines around their definition of what world music means, thereby giving themselves the right amount of freedom to book what is, by all accounts, an amazing festival.

This year's festival, to take place September 19 and 20 at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, also includes second-generation desert bluesman Vieux Farka Toure, 17 Hippies (Germany's best world-rock export - there are not 17 of them, and they are not hippies), Mexican songstress Lila Downs, Quebecois folk innovators Genticorum, and Native American flute master (and 2007 Grammy Award Winner) Mary Youngblood, among many others.