Album Review: The Forester Sisters — ‘Come Hold Me’

The girls released their seventh album in 1990 amidst an upheaval of change in the commercial country music landscape. Longtime acts from the 1980s were seeing their commercial fortunes diminish as a wave of hot, young, and mostly excellent talent became the focus of music row.

That being said, the lead single was a version of John Hiatt’s “Drive South” as a duet with Bellamy Brothers. While the song itself is excellent, Suzy Bogguss took it to #2 in 1992, it fails as a duet, couldn’t recapture the magic of “Too Much Is Not Enough,” and peaked at #63.

They rebounded creatively with the next single, “Nothing’s Going to Bother Me Tonight,” which is delightful, bluegrass-infused, and wonderfully uptempo. It, too, stalled at #63. One final single “Old Enough To Know,” a beautiful ultimatum, failed to chart.

In terms of the album cuts, I truly can’t praise them enough. The title track, a brilliant torch song led by the sisters’ exquisite harmonies, is spellbinding. “I Struck Gold” and “You’ll Be Mine” are both delightful mid-tempo ballads. “Between My Heart and Me” and “Better Be Some Tears” give the album some pep, Martina McBride subsequently recorded “Born To Give My Love To You,” a slower ballad, in 1995, and “You Can’t Have A Good Time Without Me” is a striking take on Western Swing.

The most notable aspect of Come Hold Me, in addition to its exceptional quality, is how it updates The Forester Sisters’ sound for the new decade. The arrangements, complete with steel, fiddle, and twangy guitars are perfectly early 1990s but still manages to sound fresh to modern ears. I wouldn’t categorize this as a commercial country album, but more in the alternative vein popularized by Kelly Willis.

I very strongly suggest seeking it out if you’re only familiar with the girls’ more popular work from the 1980s.

Grade: A+