Live Laugh Love

The ladies sure love Clay Walker, and LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE, his fifth album, shows why. In songs like "She's Always Right" and "Woman Thing", Walker portrays himself as a sensitive guy who's alternately baffled and amused by his girlfriend's "womanly" qualities (liking chocolate, crying at movies, shopping, talking on the phone), but who's utterly powerless to resist them. In the rockin' "Cold Hearted", Walker is again powerless, this time in the face of a girl's sexuality.
But amidst all this female-friendly material, LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE finds Walker reaching new heights as a vocalist. He gives the performance of his life on the passionate ballad "Once in a Lifetime", and wrings the emotion out of every word in his version of Earl Thomas Conley's hit "Holding Her and Loving You". Other highlights include "Chain of Love", with a payoff that's sure to give a listener goose bumps, and the joyous stomp "It Ain't Called the Heartland (For Nothin')". On the Mexican-flavoured title track, Walker sounds like he's having a ball singing about living life to its fullest. But as Walker, who has multiple sclerosis, yells out "carpe diem" over the fadeout, the message of this deceptively simple song really hits home.|