Johnnie Allan (born John Allen Guillot, March 10, 1938) is an American pioneer of the swamp pop musical genre.

Career

Born in Rayne,

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

, United States, Allan, a

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...

, 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 Cajun music (french: Musique cadienne), an emblematic music of Louisiana played by the Cajuns, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Although they are two separate genres, Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem ...

band. About two years later he switched to Lawrence Walker and the Wandering Aces, another traditional Cajun band. In 1956, he saw

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

perform live on the

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the ...

music program, and shortly afterwards Allan began to play

rock and roll music Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

. In 1958, he left Walker to form the Krazy Kats. That same year he recorded "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" for Jin Records of

Ville Platte, Louisiana Ville Platte is the largest city in, and the parish seat of, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 7,430 at the 2010 census, down from 8,145 in 2000. The city's name is of French origin, roughly translating to "flat t ...

. He later recorded for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

and the

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

label of

Crowley Crowley may refer to: Places * Crowley, Mendocino County, California, an unincorporated community *Crowley County, Colorado * Crowley, Colorado, a town in Crowley County *Crowley, Louisiana, a city * Crowley, Oregon (disambiguation) * Crowley, Te ...

, 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 Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...

's "

Promised Land The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...

" and

Merle Haggard Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler. Haggard was born in Oildale, California, toward the end of the Great Depression. His childhood was troubled a ...

's "Somewhere on Skid Row". A perennial favorite of swamp pop fans globally, Allan has performed in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

many times. He is

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

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)

References

Bibliography

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

University Press of Mississippi The University Press of Mississippi, founded in 1970, is a publisher that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi. Universities *Alcorn State University *Delta State University * Jackson State University *Mississippi State U ...

, 1996). {{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Johnnie 1938 births Living people People from Rayne, Louisiana American male singer-songwriters American male pop singers American rock musicians American rock singers American rock songwriters Writers from Louisiana Mercury Records artists Swamp pop music Singer-songwriters from Louisiana Cajun musicians