Labelling a compilation as Music For Weddings may decrease your potential audience a little because not all people who fall in love plan to marry. But in these times with more and more sub- and sub-sub-genres of music and more and more specialistic market niches it may make sense to release a record aiming at this specific core audience of people who wants to get married.
And if you're not in love right now or don't plan to marry your lover, you will still enjoy the fine soul music here on offer.
Take My Hand features ten artists with ten songs that aren't available elsewhere right now. So it's not your average "Let's compile some songs with a certain topic to make some money of our backcatalogue type of compilation.
If you liked Kloud 9's debut On Kloud 9 you'll certainly be pleased with their new soulful song Everything About This Love. Another artist, you may be familiar with, is Wendy Moten, who had released a solo album on EMI in 1992. Her This Feeling I Have Is Love is a good though somehow dramatic ballad with strings and Isley Bros-like guitar.
Also in 1992 Daryl Coley released When The Music Stops album on the Canadian Sparrow label and since then I haven't recognized his name on any other records. Until now. Here he's featured with the downtempo Whispers Of My Heart.
The other seven artists here were unknown to me before, but there are some really promising talents amongst them, who will hopefully release a whole album in the near future like Da'dra Crawford Greathouse. Forever is a fine string laden ballad produced by Roger Ryan who also produced the Wendy Moten track.
Another highlight is I'll Still Be Loving You by Denise Walls Allen, yet another very good singer. Denise get's supported on background vocals by Mark Kibble (of Take 6 fame). This is another pleasant, soulful Roger Ryan production. Lisa Shipman is also a talented singer. Her contribution to Take My Hand, the ballad Only You has been produced by Paul Wright III, who also produced Claudius Craig's mellow Always.
Paul Wright III and Roger Ryan have come together to produce Covenant Of Love for Desmond Pringle, a beautiful song full of strings, piano sprinkles and Desmond's wonderful voice.
Only the instrumental Here And Now, that's a little too smooth for my ears, and Chris Willis' Now, which is somehow spoiled for my ears by an useless guitar solo, really misses the point here for me. But with 8 very good songs on offer there's enough too choose from even if you don't want to marry someone and just look for a good soul music relase. And as a bonus you get a second CD with instrumental version of all ten songs plus two Wedding March Processionals.