Johnnie Allan
{{Short description|American singer-songwriter (born 1938)}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Johnnie Allan
| image = File:Johnnie_Allan_2004.jpg
| caption = Johnnie Allan (2004)
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1938|03|10}}{{cite web|title=Museum of the Gulf Coast: Johnnie Allan|url=http://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/personalities-music-legends-johnnie-allan.html|website=Museumofthegulfcoast.org|accessdate=2014-08-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808054931/http://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/personalities-music-legends-johnnie-allan.html|archive-date=2014-08-08|url-status=dead}}
| death_date =
| birth_name = John Allen Guillot
| birth_place = Rayne, Louisiana, U.S.
| occupation = Musician, guitarist, vocalist
| instrument = Vocals, guitar
| label = Jin Records, Flyright Records, Ace Records, Swallow Records
}}
Johnnie Allan (born John Allen Guillot, March 10, 1938) is an American pioneer of the swamp pop musical genre.{{cite book|title=The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music|editor=Colin Larkin|editor-link=Colin Larkin (writer)|publisher=Virgin Books|date=1997|edition=Concise|isbn=1-85227-745-9|page=32}}
Career
Born in Rayne, Louisiana, United States, Allan, a Cajun, grew up in a musical family, and at age six obtained his first guitar. (His mother, the former Helen Falcon, was the goddaughter of Joseph Falcon and Cleoma Falcon, the first Cajun recording artists, and sometimes played rhythm guitar for their live performances.{{cite news |title=Helen F. Guillot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-advertiser-johnny-allens-moth/124041675/ |access-date=4 May 2023 |work=The Daily Advertiser}}) By age 13, Allan 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. That same year he recorded "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" for Jin Records of Ville Platte, Louisiana. 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 many 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 (LP-9022 Jin Records, 1980)
- Good Timin' Man (FLY LP-551 Flyright Records, 1980)
- Promised Land (810 598-1 Polydor Records, 1983; 200.001 VIP Records, 1983)
- South to Louisiana (CH-145 Ace Records, 1985)
- Sings Cajun Now (LP-6069 Swallow Records, 1987)
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- John Broven, South to Louisiana: Music of the Cajun Bayous (Gretna, Louisiana: Pelican Press, 1983). {{ISBN|978-0882896083}}
- Shane K. Bernard, Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996). {{ISBN|978-0878058969}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Johnnie}}
Category:People from Rayne, Louisiana
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:American male pop singers
Category:American rock musicians
Category:American rock singers
Category:American rock songwriters
Category:Writers from Louisiana
Category:Mercury Records artists