Forester Sisters Keep Singing Same Sweet Song : Music: Quartet have a string of record hits that prove they can do it their way while ignoring trends that come and go.

The Forester Sisters don’t give two hoots about being hip. Instead of jumping on the “new traditionalist” bandwagon that’s the rage in country music circles, they’re singing the same mushy stuff they always have, with the same sweet, melt-in-your mouth vocal harmonies of such celebrated “sister” singing groups of the past like the Andrews Sisters and the McGuire Sisters.

And, when they were asked by the Nashville Network to do a cable television series, projecting a sexy, slinky image was the farthest thing from their minds. Instead, they’ll be hosting a cooking show, which is scheduled to launch early next year.

“It’s going to be on the air every day, and we’ll be cooking recipes from all across the United States,” said Kathy Forester, 35, the oldest of the four sisters--the others are June, 33, Kim, 30, and Christy, 28.

“We’re going to tie it in with post cards from each area. I know it might sound strange, but we really do cook and enjoy doing that. It’s something we’ve been doing all our lives, even before we started singing.”

An image that would get you nowhere in rock ‘n’ roll appears to be tailor-made for country music.

Since 1984, the Forester Sisters, who will appear Sunday night at Leo’s Little Bit O’ Country in San Marcos, have topped the national country singles charts more than a dozen times. In 1986, the Academy of Country Music named them the “Top Vocal Group” of the year.

And yet straight country is only a small part of a diverse repertoire that runs the gamut from lush pop to Western swing and even gospel.

“I reckon that when you have four girls involved who all grew up listening to different things, it’s definitely going to have an influence on you,” Kathy Forester said. “We’ve always enjoyed the harmonies of the Andrew Sisters and the McGuire Sisters, and some of us like to listen to pop and even jazz.

“And you can’t listen to as much of it as we listened to and not be influenced. I think country radio just has a thing for families, which we are, and harmony singing, which we do.”

The Forester Sisters were born, raised, and still live on Lookout Mountain, Ga., about 20 miles outside Chattanooga, Tenn. They grew up surrounded by music, but had to be goaded into singing by their mom, Kathy Forester recalled.

“It’s a very musical community, and we grew up thinking everywhere was like that, where most families have instruments of some sort in their homes and everybody could sing,” she said.

“And, being kids, we wanted to do different things; we never wanted to sing. Our mother is the one who got us into it--when we got home from school, she’d tell us, ‘You’ve got to sing Sunday morning in church, so you better get something ready.’ ”

“Only after we went away to college and found out this was not the norm--that not every place was so musical--did we realize how fortunate we had been. And that’s when we started singing again--this time, because we wanted to, not because we had to.”

In the early 1980s, after Kathy and June had graduated from college and become teachers, Kim and Christy interrupted their own college educations so the four could make an all-out effort to sing professionally.

“We had been trying to do two things at once--music and our careers, our educations--and neither one was getting enough attention,” Kathy Forester recalled. “So we decided to actively pursue the music business for two years and then, if we didn’t make any headway, forget it and go on with our lives.”

With a backup band, the four sisters began playing clubs and music festivals around the South.

“We just started learning and singing things we liked, the Flying Burrito Brothers, the Eagles, Emmylou Harris, and, at one club we were singing in, we began to draw an audience,” Forester said.

“In December of 1983 we went into Muscle Shoals and recorded a demonstration tape. Somehow, it got into the hands of the people at Warners Brothers Records; they liked it, called us, we auditioned for them, and they signed us--just like that.

“And it’s funny, because within a year of our decision to take music seriously, we had a contract, which is very rare in this business.”

Success came quickly for the Forester Sisters. Their first single, “That’s What You Do When You’re in Love,” was released in late 1984 and promptly rocketed into the Top 10 of the national country charts.

The sisters were surprised, Kathy Forester recalled--and so was their record company.

“The people at the label told us that our first song would probably go into the 60s and then fall out, because that’s what most new records do,” she said. “So it went into the 60s, and we were waiting for it to drop, but instead, it went into the 50s, then the 40s, and on up until it finally hit No. 10--and they were as shocked as we were.”

The hits kept coming: “I Fell In Love Again Last Night,” “Just In Case,” “Mama’s Never Seen Those Eyes,” “(I’d Choose) You Again,” and “Too Much Is Not Enough”--the latter, a collaboration with the Bellamy Brothers--are among the biggest.