Clay Walker Album: “Say No More”

Description :

Personnel includes: Clay Walker (vocals); Biff Watson (acoustic guitar); Brent Mason, B. James Lowry (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Aubrey Haynie (fiddle); Michael Haynes (horns); Tony Harrell, Matt Rollings, Steve Nathan (keyboards); Dirk Johnson (synthesizer); Glenn Worf (bass); Shannon Forest, Lonnie Wilson (drums); Javier Solis (conga); Wes Hightower, Chris Rodriguez, Gene Miller (background vocals). <p>Producers include: Byron Gallimore, Clay Walker, Brent Mason, Blake Mevis. <p>Engineers include: Julian King, Marty Williams, Erik Lutkins. <p>Like his Beaumont, Texas homeboy Mark Chesnutt, Clay Walker's a "stealth" country star--he's been racking up the hits for years, but he hasn't won many awards, and he's not exactly a Tonight Show regular. But being out of the spotlight gives Walker plenty of artistic freedom, as evidenced by his seventh CD, SAY NO MORE. <p>This wildly diverse album touches on nearly every style of country music, from honky-tonk to Western swing, not to mention Tex-Mex, power ballads, and Christian country. What holds it all together are Walker's stellar vocals--one minute he's Ritchie Valens reborn on a faithful, Spanish language remake of "La Bamba," the next he's a latter-day Merle Haggard, honky-tonkin' his way through "Rough Around the Edges." Other highlights include the hard-country weeper "Can I Ask You Not to Dance," and the title track, with its complex yet catchy melody. Too much stylistic variation isn't usually advisable for a country artist, but for Walker, whose ability to fly beneath the radar prevents him from being painted into a corner artistically, it works just fine. SAY NO MORE is a thoroughly enjoyable collection from a talented singer who deserves a higher profile.

Clay Walker is stepping up and taking his turn! Showing the world his God-given talent seems to be the message as he belts out these lyrics with a breathtaking voice, not to mention how he draws you into each song and it's meaning with such charismatic magnetism. I am really impressed with the wide selection of songs from your traditional slow, "wish I was lovin'" ballads, like "Say No More" and "If You Ever Feel Like Lovin' Me Again" to his trademark groovy-rock beat with "I Love it" where he sings about his "favorite" - Texas Women! Clay also shows off his Latin tongue with his very impressive rendition of "La Bamba", and shows his Texas roots with the nitty-gritty "Texas Swing". There is something here for everyone and he is sure to get your attention when he gives it all he's got with the wonderful "You Deliver Me"! What a great song! Enjoy!

Clay Walker issues his sixth studio album and seventh overall with "Say No More" and it seems the material is more of a bittersweet nature than that found on his previous effort "Live, Laugh, Love." "She's Easy to Hold" is the most traditional sounding of the 11 cuts on this album. Walker's cover of "La Bamba" is excellent. The title track, "Say No More", is a bittersweet tale of a woman who wants to end a relationship but she doesn't want to hurt the man's feelings. He knows what she's been pondering so he tells her to "say no more" as he wants to make it easier on both her and himself. "Cound I Ask You Not to Dance" is sort of along the same lines as the aforementioned track. The man is heartbroken and seeing his ex having a good time is hard on him so he wants her to hold off her dancing activities until he's left. "I Love It" is about a man who is in love with a not so conservative woman. "Real" is the kind of ballad you would expect from Walker and it's probably my favorite song on the album along with the title track. "You Deliver Me" is another ballad that finds Walker putting all his heart and passion into the vocals. This is a great album and don't be discouraged by the fact that Byron Gallimore (helped produce the not-so-country Faith Hill album "Breathe") is one of the producers on this record discourage anybody from giving this album a listen because it's excellent.

Clay Walker's albums have always been uneven affairs: great singles usually surrounded by mediocre material. His latest effort Say You Will is more of the same. Walker fares best when he sticks to his roots, with a surprisingly stellar rendition of Ritchie Valens' La Bamba (he worked four years on perfecting his Spanish diction before recording this classic and the hard work paid off) as well as his own first-rate composition "Texas Swing" (where Walker proclaims "when you get down to it, Bob Wills Is Still The King") among the highlights.

Unfortunately, light-and-lively moments like those are in the minority. For this, his sixth studio release, Walker has hooked up with "producer of the moment" Byron Gallimore (whose artists include Tim McGraw, Jo Dee Messina, and Faith Hill). Given Gallimore's slick tendencies in the past, it's not surprising that the album is filled with over-blown, bland power-pop ballads like "Real" and "So Much More" (an exception: the urgent title track, which is saved by one of Walker's best vocal performances to date). It's a waste of talent, since as Clay Walker has proven in the past, less (production) is usually more.