It was only a matter of time.

In a development that either shows that America is indeed the great land of opportunity, or that it’s time to hunker down in the basement as the apocalypse has arrived, the great Joe the Plumber — AKA Samuel Wurzelbacher — has signed with a Nashville-based PR firm that is exploring, among other things, scoring Joe the Plumber a major deal on a country music record label.

No, this is no joke. Well, yeah, it is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

The firm says that JTP (you saw it here first and I henceforth claim all legal credit for the JTP trademark) can strum a bit of guitar and sing a little. Which makes him at least as qualified as 90 percent of the country singers alive.

So what the hell — why not? Strike while the iron’s hot, Joe. Because a year from now, people may well be saying ”Hey, remember that Joe the Plumber guy?”

Update: “I love country music, and I mean it’s pretty much what I listen to from sun-up to sundown. But as far as me being a country music star, I don’t know. I don’t think people are that deaf-tone out there.”