A Few Questions (RCA, 2003)

Clay Walker isn't in the kind of questioning mood this album's title implies; instead, "A Few Questions" offers simple and straight-forward answers to life's bigger questions. But since Walker is not what you might consider a deep thinker, his latest release adds up to a simplistic and unfulfilling offering. A good example of this recording's shallowness is the clich+-ridden "Everybody Needs Love," which endlessly repeats stereotypes about Nashvillians and Texans, without ever telling us anything we don't already know. So they like their Dallas Cowboys down in Texas, eh? No duh!

Walker is equally inept at theology, as this album's title track fails to help explain why bad things happen to good people, and "Jesus Was A Country Boy" isn't going to bring in any new converts. Walker is an adequate vocalist, but even his passionate singing cannot rise above this album's predictable lyrics and lame arrangements. Before putting this release out, Walker's people should have given him a few more musical challenges. As it stands, "A Few Questions" finds Clay Walker sleep walking through a series of dreamy, yet unmemorable, tracks.