It all started for the Forester Sisters on Georgia's Lookout Mountain with a performance by Kathy and June as a duo at church. They swelled to a trio with the addition of Kim and were soon playing parties and shows in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. Christy soon assumed her place in the lineup, expanding The Forester Sisters to a quartet, and they so impressed the locals that songwriters began providing them with original songs.
They headed to famed Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record a demo and the drummer at the session passed the tape along to a friend in Nashville. It ended up in the hands of a Warner Brothers executive who called the family and asked for an audition. On July 31, 1984, the group officially signed with the label and began setting new standards in country music.
Their first single, "(That's What You Do) When You're In Love," reached the Top Ten. The next one, "I Fell In Love Again Last Night," went all the way to number one. The string continued unabated for six years as The Forester Sisters became the first act to place each of their first fourteen singles in Billboard's Top Ten since the introduction of the 100-position country chart. In the process, they reeled off five number one singles including "Just In Case," "(I'd Choose) You Again," "Mama's Never Seen Those Eyes," and their duet with The Bellamy Brothers, "Too Much Is Not Enough." For their efforts, they received Vocal Group of the Year honors from the Academy Of Country Music.
It wasn't always easy. The Forester touring entourage included the band, business associates, and kids (nineteen people in all!), and they all toughed it out in only two functional but cramped buses. The constant crowding naturally led to tense moments for the quartet, but it also helped the sisters learn to work through hard times to achieve their singular goal.
"It's been like a marriage," June explains. "We've gotten to know each other far more than we ever did as children, and I probably spent more time with them than my husband. So it has been a lot like marriage." The marriage hit a creative high point in 1996 with More Than I Am, their eleventh album for Warner Brothers and their first as co-producers. The project was released jointly with Alliance, a division of Warner Brothers specializing in product with a positive and uplifting message. Unbound by the commercial constraints of country radio, More Than I Am is an album of songs about faith, family, and friends that most accurately represents the sisters' stylistic diversity and broad musical shoulders. From the driving intensity of the title cut and the inspiring exuberance of "Another Shoulder At The Wheel" to the healing melancholy of "We Will Not Pass This Way Again," More Than I Am is as multifaceted as the collection of personalities that created it.
"Most people have a different image of us than what we're really like," says Kathy. "All four of us are very different people, but we're very close, I think because we bring out the best and worst in each other. But we're very spontaneous, and we do have a good time."
"Our earlier albums were real sweet," adds June. "And we are sweet, but then there's another side of us that nobody's ever seen - the wit, the mischief - we're pretty raucous sometimes."
This 'other' side began its public evolution with the 1991 release of Talkin' 'Bout Men, which marked the Forester Sisters' return to Muscle Shoals as seasoned veterans recording with old friends. Under the direction of producers Robert Byrne and Alan Schulman, they soaked up the intangible musical energy left behind by prior Muscle Shoals clientele such as Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and The Rolling Stones. One of the fruits of these sessions was probably their most popular and talked about single, "Men," which earned The Forester Sisters their third Grammy nomination.
They marked their tenth anniversary as recording artists with the release of their tenth album, I Got A Date, continuing the stylistic and subject explorations begun with Talkin' 'Bout Men. The package runs the gamut of male/female interaction, from the romance of a new relationship ("I Only Have Eyes For You"), to obsession ("What'll You Do About Me"), longevity ("There Hearts Are Dancing"), and divorce ("Wanda").
"The tenth record was a definite milestone," says Christy, the youngest of the quartet. "We didn't know the career was coming when it came and it all happened really fast. From the beginning we were fortunate enough to start out on a good foot with our first single being a Top Ten record."
"At first it was a real whirlwind, so after the success of "Men" we started to slow down a little bit and appreciate the things that were happening and where we were in our careers."
One way they expressed their appreciation was by forging a relationship with the USO and doing a series of Christmas tours for the US Department of Defense. The girls performed for American troops stationed all over the world under a broad range of conditions, delivering a little bit of home for the holidays and bringing back a healthy respect and grateful admiration for those that sacrifice so much.
Now, with shifting priorities and children ranging from grade school to college students, The Forester Sisters have returned home to Lookout Mountain, where Sunday dinners and high school basketball have taken the place of hotel rooms and concert soundchecks. They still perform occasionally and their latest project, a new album of Christmas music titled New Star Shining, proves that the Foresters are still vital, stretching, and striving to top their previous works. The family that grew up singing together continues to grow, and they bring to New Star Shining what they bring to everything they do; a style and vision that is theirs alone.
