Without a strong contender for a follow-up single from their previous album, Warner Brothers went ahead and started issuing singles from this set, which was released in the Spring.

The girls’ third album was released in 1987 following their successful duet with the Bellamy Brothers and subsequent Brothers and Sisters concert tour. I very strongly suggest seeking it out if you’re only familiar with the girls’ more popular work from the 1980s. I wouldn’t categorize this as a commercial country album, but more in the alternative vein popularized by Kelly Willis. The arrangements, complete with steel, fiddle, and twangy guitars are perfectly early 1990s but still manages to sound fresh to modern ears. 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. “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. “I Struck Gold” and “You’ll Be Mine” are both delightful mid-tempo ballads. The title track, a brilliant torch song led by the sisters’ exquisite harmonies, is spellbinding. In terms of the album cuts, I truly can’t praise them enough. One final single “Old Enough To Know,” a beautiful ultimatum, failed to chart. They rebounded creatively with the next single, “Nothing’s Going to Bother Me Tonight,” which is delightful, bluegrass-infused, and wonderfully uptempo.

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. That being said, the lead single was a version of John Hiatt’s “Drive South” as a duet with Bellamy Brothers. 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. The girls released their seventh album in 1990 amidst an upheaval of change in the commercial country music landscape.

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