Swamp pop legend Johnnie Allan has appeared on more than 30 LPs, 25 CDs, and 58 singles enjoyed by fans around the world.

​

Born John Allen Guillot on March 10, 1938, in Rayne, Louisiana, Allan received his first guitar at age six and learned to play from his mother. By 13, he was performing with Walter Mouton & the Scott Playboys, a traditional Cajun band. Two years later, he joined Lawrence Walker & the Wandering Aces. While still in high school, he was playing six to eight gigs a week.

​

In 1956, after seeing Elvis Presley perform on the Louisiana Hayride, Allan shifted his focus to rock & roll. He left Walker in 1958 to form the Krazy Kats, whose evolving sound helped define what later became known as “swamp pop”—a blend of Cajun melodies, country, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues. That same year he recorded “Lonely Days, Lonely Nights” for JIN Records in Ville Platte, Louisiana, followed by “Letter of Love” in 1959. During this period he attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette, earning a degree in education. From 1967 to 1969, he pursued graduate work toward a master’s degree.

​

Allan recorded many of his signature swamp pop tunes in the early 1970s. Six weeks into his first teaching job, he was activated with the National Guard during the 1961 Berlin Crisis. When he returned, he learned that his band’s song “Your Picture” had begun receiving radio play. Throughout the 1970s, he balanced life as a school administrator by day and musician by night.

​

Over the years, Allan became a leading authority on Cajun music and culture, writing several books on the subject and earning recognition from the Cajun French Music Association. A perennial favorite among swamp pop fans worldwide, he has performed in Europe many times.