To a man, every musician that you’ll come across will readily give you the dream project that they would love to do somewhere down the road.  For Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent that dream project was to record a complete album of Statler Brothers songs.  Thanks to the folks at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Restaurant and the duo’s label Rounder Records, that dream has become a reality as they have just released their third album, Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers.

Dailey & Vincent not only are singing 12 Statler Brothers tunes but they’ve filtered these classic and mostly well-known tunes into their bluegrass filter and the results are, in a word: stunning.  The record starts off with the most well-known hit of the Statler Brothers’ career in “Flowers on the Wall” and works its way down through their varied catalog from there.  The record includes several other classic hits like “Elizabeth” from 1984 and “”Susan When She Tried” from 1974.  One of the best tracks on the record is “Class of ‘57” which isn’t too drastically different from the version that the Statler Brothers released in 1972.  This song is lyrical and melodic at the same time and when paired with many contemporarily written tunes, it shows how much we’ve gone away from storytelling songs to songs that start a story but don’t finish it.  The ‘controversial’ ‘Bed of Rose’s” was the Statler Brothers’ second hit to eclipse the Top 10 and it told a story of a man who was taken in by a prostitute named Rose and despite being looked-down upon by ‘church-going society’ Rose did something more ‘Christian,’ helping the meek and poor, than those townfolk did.  It’s another remarkable song with a strong storytelling arc. 

When everything’s said and done, Dailey & Vincent Sing the Statler Brothers is, without a doubt, one of the best cohesive albums I’ve heard in a long time.  Jamie Dailey and Darrin Vincent have lovingly crafted a record that should not only help further their career but it should also help give more awareness to the vast catalog of the Statler Brothers themselves. 

You can support Dailey & Vincent by purchasing this record at Cracker Barrel’s online store or by visting the restaurant and store near you.