Jimmy Lee Fautheree and Johnny Mathis (no, not THAT Johnny Mathis) may not have been blood relatives but they harmonised like true siblings such as Don and Phil Everly, Ira and Charlie Louvin and Bill and Charlie Monroe were. Their terrific and immediately recognisable hillbilly harmonies were a boon to country music for almost a decade, and their legacy pervades even though they didn't actually make that many records together.
This new Jasmine collection tells half of the Jimmy and Johnny story - during a hiatus for these two, Jimmy worked with his brother Lynn filling in as 'Johnny' - but it's the half that is best remembered by aficionados of rockabilly, thanks to our perennially popular title track here, and straight ahead hillbilly. (It's hoped that a second volume featuring the Fautheree brothers' J & J recordings might follow if this one sells as well as we expect it to!)
As well as every Fautheree-Mathis recording of the 50s and early 60s, 'Can't Find The Door Knob' also features the brilliant solo recordings that "Country Johnny Mathis" made between 1958 and 1960, all of them hard core, unvarnished honky tonk tunes that were his specialty throughout his career, plus a couple of unashamed attempts at Rock 'n' Roll that he made under the alias of 'Les Cole'. The majority of the tracks here have never been issued on CD in the UK before.
If you are looking for 1950s up-tempo country music at its very best, you need look no further than this beautifully-mastered, expertly annotated Jasmine CD by Jimmy & Johnny. And to borrow the title of their biggest hit - if you don't somebody else will!
