Joe Stampley has done it all. From hobnobbing with Hank Williams, Sr., to stardom with a ’60s rock group to his legendary pairing with Moe Bandy to a stellar solo career. You could honestly say that his musical odyssey has traversed nearly every road in American popular music history over the past half century. Louisiana-born/Nashville-schooled, Stampley flirted with stardom in 1966 as the lead singer for the Uniques. They had the biggest hit on the old Paula label with the Allen Toussaint-written “All These Things,” a song that Art Neville covered several years later. In the 1970s he lit out on his own for Nashville and the world, enjoying one solo hit after another on the ABC/Dot and Epic labels. His teaming with Bandy in the ’80s cemented their reputations as “The Good Ol’ Boys” and they won “Vocal Duo of the Year” honors from both the Country Music Awards and—for two years running—the American Country Music Foundation. Prior to that, in 1976, he was Billboard magazine’s “Single Artist of the Year” with eight charted singles that year and, over his career, he has charted more than 60 records. So, after all the hype, how does this CD measure up? Very nicely, thank you. Country is still the motif of choice and there are nice, countrified versions of “All These Things” and the Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes’ classic, “If You Don’t Know Me By Now.” That’s just for starters. The title track is a working man’s ode to simple, down-to-earth values and joys, cleverly playing off the song’s much better known namesake from “The Wizard of Oz,” and some of the lyrics warrant quoting here: “This old street we live on/ Ain’t no yellow brick road/ And this paycheck that I bring home/ Ain’t no pot of gold.” And, after singing about the pleasures of staying home, watching the late show and dancing slow to the radio, we hear “Somewhere under the rainbow/ Some folks spend a lifetime/ Dreaming about the other side” where, to sum up, things are always sweet and beautiful. But, as we all know, life just ain’t like that all the time and Stampley reminds us that there is beauty to be found even in rain and darkened skies. On this, and several other tracks, Stampley touts the simple joy of having the love of a good woman — placing it above money, material things and everything else. There’s a beautiful duet with Rocki Rachal entitled “You’re What Love’s All About” that says it all. Other songs are in a more rockin’, humorous vein, like “If Money Talks (All Mine Says is Goodbye)” “Knock Down Drag Out” and the closer, “If it Ain’t One Thing (It’s Another) in which he duos with son Tony, a C&W star in his own right. And so, the legacy continues into a new century. Joe Stampley is a true American musical treasure and may we have him around for many more years to come.