POP MUSIC REVIEW : Walker Stays True to Country Tradition

Country music seems to need people like Clay Walker.

He’s no creative trailblazer a la Willie Nelson or Waylon Jennings, but this Texan, who performed Friday at the Greek Theatre, is at least true to the musical tradition he has chosen, with no signs he’s ready to abandon it for some profitable crossover action.

In his co-headlining appearance with Lorrie Morgan, Walker led a fine seven-man band through an energetic set of mainstream pop-country. Performing songs from his recent “If I Could Make a Living” album, Walker’s hearty tenor expressed convincing emotion through such songs as “This Woman, This Man.” It’s a sound that has already taken him to the top of the country charts.

At the Greek, he supplemented that with a surprising array of rock ‘n’ roll cover tunes, from the Elvis Presley hit “Suspicious Minds” to the Eagles’ “Hotel California.” But that energy ground to a halt every time Walker finished a song because he’d meander through some stilted, shy-boy patter.

Though several women in the crowd were overcome with his every wink and tilt of his cowboy hat, Walker would do better with the rest of his audience by dropping the hokum.

In her Los Angeles performing debut, Morgan closed the show with a set of her country hits. The singer’s main guise is no-nonsense tough-gal, but her show was overloaded with weepy romantic ballads.