Born John Allan Guillot in Rayne, Louisiana on March 10, 1938, Johnnie Allan is of mixed Spanish and French heritage. Coming from a very musical family on his mother’s side, his great uncle was the renowned accordionist Joseph Falcon who recorded the first Cajun song "Allons A Lafayette" in 1928. However, Allan’s father was a sharecropper so Allan and his brother worked the farm with his parents while attending school. When he was about eleven Allan and his brother sold vegetable seeds to earn enough money for his first guitar, which his mother taught him to play.
At 13, he and fellow classmate Walter Mouton formed a band, Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys. Their first gig was at the Colonial Club in Esterwood, Louisiana playing pure Cajun music. Allan taught himself to play the pedal steel guitar during this time and was invited to join Lawrence Walker’s organization. He was still in high school but managed to play six to eight gigs a week with them until the popularity of traditional Cajun music began to wane in the wake of the new sounds of Rock and Roll.
Allan and some of his band mates broke away from Walker and changed their style to what developed into Swamp Pop, a unique combination of "old timey" Cajun melodies, the twang of country and western, and the driving beat of rock and roll and rhythm and blues. Called the Krazy Kats, Allan’s new band recorded "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" in 1958 with Floyd Soileau from Ville Platte, Louisiana and "Letter of Love" the following year. Both songs were popular along the Gulf Coast. During this time Allan completed high school and attended the University of Southern Louisiana in Lafayette.
In 1961 he began his teaching career, but six weeks into his new day job, he was called into active duty in the National Guard for the Berlin Crisis. When he returned, he discovered that the song, "Your Picture," recorded with the Krazy Kats just before he left, was on the local radio stations. Allan and his band recorded with Bill Hall and Huey Meaux following the regional chart topping success of "Lonely Days, Lonely Nights" in an attempt to get on the national charts, and ride the surge of popularity for the new Swamp Pop sound, but it just bubbled under the 100 mark and after a short stint with Viking Records he went back with Soileau.
Between 1967 and 1969 Johnnie Allan stopped playing music to focus on getting a masters degree in education at McNeese State University. He was the Acadian Elementary School assistant principal until he retired in 1981. Allan considered not ever going back into the music business until he was persuaded by accordionist Bessyl Duhon to reform the Krazy Kats and play some gigs in 1970. They did with a swamp pop version of "The Promised Land," which had been recorded by Chuck Berry. Floyd Soileau was once again on board and they played to packed clubs across southern Louisiana. Four years later it was included in a compilation album released in England by Charlie Gillett. Titled "Another Saturday Night," the album’s first single was "The Promised Land." Although it was very popular in the U.K., it was somewhat eclipsed by another version recorded by Elvis Presley six weeks later.
In 1978, Gillett saw that the Elvis version didn’t really upset the charts and re-released it with Dave Robinson at Stiff Records. It was a big hit and made it to the Capital Radio Top Ten. Allan traveled to England for a whirlwind press tour. Through the 70’ s he worked as a school administrator by day and nightclub singer by night until he decided to take an early retirement and become an author. Johnnie Allan has become the premier authority and collector of Cajun culture.
He dedicated the next twelve years to collecting photos documenting the history of the music of Southern Louisiana and East Texas, "Cajun Country." His book, "Memories, A Pictorial History of South Louisiana Music, 1920’s-1980’s " was first conceived as a companion to John Broven’s book "South to Louisiana" (Pelican, 1983) by Allan when people would ask him about obscure artists mentioned in Broven’s book. He traveled from Houston to Grand Isle, Louisiana tracking down relatives and making copies of treasured photos. Volume I was published in 1988 but Allan continued to collect images and Volume I and II Combined was published in 1995.
His second foray into authorship with University of Southern Louisiana professor Bernice Larson Webb produced the story of singer and songwriter Jimmy Donley titled, "Born to be a Loser" published in 1993. Donley’s songs have endured and acquired a cult status in Allan’s musical world and his curiosity led him to research the troubled song writer’s life. The result was a heart breaking story of self destruction, alcoholism and domestic violence as well as a look into the rock and roll recording industry’s infancy. As the ambassador of Swamp Pop and Southern Louisiana culture, Johnnie Allan also hosted a Swamp Pop music radio show on public radio station KRVS for many years in Lafayette where he currently resides/
Return to Music Legends...