From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sun Mar 10, 2002  2:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Johnnie Allan
 
JOHNNIE ALLAN

Born John Allen Guillot, 10 March 1938, Rayne, Louisiana

Often called the "Ambassador of Swamp Pop," Johnnie Allan grew up
in a musically rich family. At age 13 he started playing Cajun music with
Walter Mouton and the Scott Playboys, and two years later with Lawrence
Walker and the Wandering Aces. Around 1958 Allan switched to rhythm
and blues music, helping to pioneer the "swamp pop" sound. Among his
recordings are "Lonely Days And Lonely Nights" (1958), "South to Louisiana"
(sung to the melody of "North to Alaska", 1962) and Chuck Berry's
"Promised Land" (1974), which made him popular in Europe, prompting
his first European performance in 1978.
Recording mainly for the Viking and Jin labels, Allan's work has appeared
on roughly sixty singles, thirty albums, and twenty-five CDs; he has
appeared overseas about twenty times. A retired educator, Allan is the
author of "Born to Be a Loser: The Jimmy Donley Story" (with Bernice
Larson Webb), and he edited and compiled "Memories: A Pictorial History
of South Louisiana Music" (1988, revised and expanded edition 1995).

Further reading: John Broven, South to Louisiana (1983).
Recommended listening: Johnnie Allan, Swamp Pop Legend :
The Essential Collection (Jin 9044-2). 25 tracks, liner notes by
Shane K. Bernard.