Clay Walker is an eminently likeable country singer who appears to have sold 6 million records largely on his likability. Not that he is without talent. He may look like a standard-issue "hat" act, but his voice is a cut above. With new producer Doug Johnson he has set out to place his voice front and center, a good idea with mixed results. On cuts like the rocker "Cold Hearted" and the R&B-style ballad "This Time Love," Walker cuts his considerable pipes loose in a way rarely heard in commercial country fare. Sadly, too much of the other material gives him little to do with this marvelous instrument, and the sound occasionally masks the subtle vocal twists at which Walker is so adept. Live, Laugh, Love isn´t overproduced--steel guitars have replaced many of the pop keyboards present in his previous work and the record has an authentically loose and relaxed feel--but there are too many forced hooks and forgettable melodies.