Johnnie Allan

Johnnie Allan
File:JohnnieAllan-StateMuseum.jpg Johnnie Allan
Background information
Born	(1938-03-10)March 10, 1938 Rayne, Louisiana
Genres	Cajun
Occupation(s)	Musician, guitarist, vocalist
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Labels	Jin Records, Flyright Records, Ace Records (United Kingdom), Swallow Records

Johnnie Allan, real name John Allen Guillot, is a pioneer of the swamp pop musical genre.

Career

Born March 10, 1938, in Rayne, Louisiana, Allan, a Cajun, grew up in a musical family, and at age six obtained his first guitar. By age thirteen he was playing with Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys, a traditional Cajun music band. About two years later he switched to Lawrence Walker and the Wandering Aces, another traditional Cajun band.

In 1956 he saw Elvis Presley perform live on the Louisiana Hayride music program, and shortly afterwards Allan began to play rock and roll music. In 1958 he left Walker to form the Krazy Kats, and in doing so helped to pioneer what became known as swamp pop music.

That same year he recorded "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" for the Jin label of Ville Platte, Louisiana, and the song became a swamp pop classic.

He later recorded for Mercury Records and the Viking label of Crowley, Louisiana, among others.

He returned to the Jin label in the early 1970s and went on to record many notable swamp pop tunes, including his versions of Chuck Berry's "Promised Land" and Merle Haggard's "Somewhere on Skid Row."

A perennial favorite of swamp pop fans globally, Allan has performed in Europe well over a dozen times. He is author of two music-related books, Memories: A Pictorial History of South Louisiana Music (1988) and Born to Be a Loser (1992, with Bernice Larson Webb), a biography of swamp pop musician Jimmy Donley.

A retired educator, he lives in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Discography

Albums

• South To Louisiana (LP-4001 Jin Records, 1964)
• A Portrait Of Johnnie Allan (LP 9012 Jin Records, 1976)
• Cajun Country (9022 Jin Records, 1980)
• Good Timin' Man (FLY LP 551 Flyright, 1980)
• Promised Land (810 598-1 Polydor, 1983) (200.001 VIP, 1983)
• South To Louisiana (CH 145 Ace Records, 1985)
• Sings Cajun Now (LP-6069 Swallow, 1987)

Another Man's Woman

References

• John Broven, South to Louisiana: Music of the Cajun Bayous (Gretna, La.: Pelican Press, 1983).
• Shane K. Bernard, Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996).