Dailey & Vincent "Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers" (Cracker Barrel Country Stores)

Shame on me, but I find myself listening less these days to WSM’s Eddie Stubbs, the deejay who’s the walking reference book for all things classic country and bluegrass.

But, I’m tickled I turned on Stubbs’ evening show about a week ago when Jamie Dailey and Darin Vincent were his guests, on the air to promote their new CD, “Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers.” Following his normal routine, Stubbs altered between interviewing these two bluegrass hot properties and playing cuts off the new CD.

His take? “You don’t out-Statler the Statler Brothers,” quipped Stubbs to Dailey & Vincent’s agreement, but, he added (and I obviously paraphrase here), WOW!

I was hooked and enticed by the radio cuts– to the point I told my wife I was headed down the street the next day to the Cracker Barrel to pick up a copy of this gem. (Cracker Barrel, by the way, is the only sales outlet for the CD.) I confess, I shuddered at the thought of walking into Cracker Barrel, since I’m about a month into this new low-fat, high-fiber diet my doctor is recommending, hopefully to keep me off the daily cholesterol pills. Can I enter this place where the aroma of everything that’s cholesterol-laden wafts through the air? My wife spared me the temptation. She surprised me and had the CD on the kitchen counter the next day when I came for lunch (low-fat turkey and oatmeal-flax seed bread).

Since then, I’ve had the Statlers tribute CD in my car player and have shared it with a couple of friends. We’re all taken aback a bit (a lot?) by how much the Dailey & Vincent crew can sound like the real deal here. It’s like, that simply can’t be the young, slender Joe Dean singing all those incredible bass parts; it’s gotta be Harold Reid. It’s just gotta be!

Not so. Harold, Don, Jimmy and Phil, they aren’t on this wonderful tribute, at least not in voice. But the group’s spirit has never been more alive than it is on this tribute. And, according to Stubbs, members of the Statlers give the project a hearty, but humble thumbs up.

The Statlers walked on to the national stage in the early 1960s with the hit, “Counting Flowers on the Wall,” and quickly became part of Johnny Cash’s road show. They continued to record hit after hit after hit until retiring at the end of a 2002 farewell tour.

If you’ve caught Dailey & Vincent out on the road during the past several months, you know how well they do the Statler Brothers songs on stage. Well, they do them very well on this CD as well.

A favorite or two? Forget it, every cut is a gem and every cut conjures memories of the Statlers’ long and well-deserved rein on country radio. The Statlers were masters of bringing traditional gospel four-part harmonies into mainstream country. Nobody’s done it as well since they come on the scene, but Dailey & Vincent come close.

Besides the regular band lineup, Dailey & Vincent bring some guests on board for this noteworthy project — and none more notable than guitarist Pete Wade and piano ace Hargis “Pig” Robbins. I’d bet both Wade and Robbins, old hats around the Nashville studio scene, are on plenty of band credits on Statler studio projects. It’s definitely a nice touch to have them on this CD.

My prediction is this: Dailey & Vincent will see sales of this CD skyrocket. Word’s going to get around fast — and there’s a sizeable fan base out there for Dailey & Vincent, but there’s a veritable sea of Statler Brothers fans who are still around. This has to be a major seller, despite it being an exclusive at Cracker Barrel.

Back to Eddie Stubbs’ assessment. Does this CD “out-Statler” the Statlers? No, but Dailey & Vincent come as close as anyone ever will.