One More Touch: Various Artists Vol 2, a compilation album that first came out in 2007, was recently re-released by Wildfire Records, an independent company based in Philadelphia.

The set has 19 songs, many of which feature singer Peter Brown, who died in 2023.

It was one of several projects on which he collaborated with Earl Messam, founder and principal of Wildfire Records.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, Messam said One More Touch never got adequate promotion in its first run. Hence the decision to take another crack at the market.

“Peter was a good guy, he ministered to the youths in Trench Town and Philadelphia. Was never selfish, was always giving back,” he said.

Signs of The Time, one of the songs from the album, was originally done by Claudell Clarke, a pioneer gospel-reggae singer. She collaborates with Brown on One More Touch’s remixed version.

Brown was born in Kingston and raised in Trench Town. While his first taste performing came on various talent and community events, Brown’s recording career started after he migrated to the United States in 1990.

He appears on seven of the songs on One More Touch, which Messam describes as “street gospel”. Those include the title track, True Revelation and Thank You Lord.

From Clarendon, Messam has been in the music business since the 1980s. He settled permanently in Philadelphia late that decade and established Wildfire Records, which has produced and released songs by artistes such as Doniki, Ian Sweetness, and Roland Burrell.

— Howard Campbell