LEWISTON - Singer Nick Knowlton began recording "Letting Go" by holding on.

He propped his favorite picture of his late wife, Joye, on a music stand and sang to her.

"I would sing a few songs, choke up and start again," Knowlton said. "It's the magic of digital recording that we got through it."

So much was raw.

The sessions for the tribute album of love songs began on Oct. 22, 2007, the day the couple would have celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary.

Joye had died less than two months earlier, succumbing to liver cancer.

"I got through it because I had to," Knowlton said of the CD, which is slated to be released in stores next month. "I'm fulfilling what she told me to do."

On Aug. 28, the first anniversary of Joye's death, he plans to release the album of 16 songs, a combination of covers and originals.

It's titled "Letting Go: Songs for Joye."

Songs include a Beatles tune ("Because"), one from the Righteous Brothers ("Unchained Melody") and a Graham Nash classic ("Our House"). There is also one from local musician Denny Breau and two from Roger Michaud, who led Lewiston's Moon Dawgs.

"It's my first solo album," said the 56-year-old Lewiston singer, who flirted with fame in the 1970s and has become a popular wedding singer in recent years.

"At my age, I'm not looking to play arenas," Knowlton said. Nor is this the project he would want to build his ambitions upon, proud as he is of the album.

Ten months after his wife's death, Knowlton is still grieving. His Lewiston home is filled with framed images of Joye, on the beach and in family portraits. Out of sight, he has baskets full of sympathy cards, many of which he never opened.

He confessed that he still catches the scent of Joye's perfume as he walks around their home.

"I know she's not here," he said. "Do I have days when I cry my eyes out? Sure."

Music makes the mourning a little easier.

"I want you to go on and do the things you have always done," Joye told him about a month before she died.

Feeling obligated by contract, Knowlton performed at a wedding less than two weeks after Joye's death.

Almost automatically, he began choosing the songs for the CD. He enlisted a friend, producer Harry King, to put together the background music and book the studio.

They recorded only one song during each session.

"This album is all emotion," Knowlton said. "The only way I know how to do it is to feel it, from my toenails to my eyebrows."

He finished the recording in March. Technical work on the tracks was completed in April by Portland's Gateway Mastering.

"This is a national quality CD," Knowlton said.

Yet, he is still unsure how he plans to unveil the work. There will likely be a release party and he has begun to get deals from local businesses - including Androscoggin Bank and Roopers - to sell the CDs.

Whether he can bring himself to sing all the songs in public is uncertain, he said.

Performing has grown easier. He's booked 28 weddings this year and plans to perform Friday afternoon at the Liberty Festival. He is scheduled to be at Veterans Park in Lewiston from 5 to 6 p.m.

One track from the CD and the only non-love song, "I Sing for America," will likely be part of the Independence Day set.

Others such as Lionel Ritchie's "Lady," Joye's favorite song, may never make it to his stage act.

"Right now, it's too close," he said.