Johnny Jano

Records[/recordlabel] in Crowley Louisiana and continued through the 70's and early 80's when he recorded Cajun & Country tunes for the Goldband label and others. In 1977 a UK indie label dubbed him "King Of Louisiana Rockabilly" when it issued a popular retrospective collection LP of that name. His country/cajun career began In Beaumont TX in the early 70's when he teamed up with Cajun fiddler [artst]Manson Manuel and they formed a band that played the clubs and honky tonks of Southeast Texas. Johnny even opened his own club on Hwy 90 in Beaumont's westside, did tour dates and also performed on Mickey Gilley's television show in Houston. He had regional hits like Cajun Power on the Goldband affiliate Jador label and even issued music with his second wife Janet, including the Christian gospel standard " A Closer Walk with Thee" (sung in Acadian french) . Popular Cajun titles of his include the LPs I'm Proud To Be A Cajun in 1980 and 1983's Johnny Jano Sings Cajun Pure. Overall Johnny issued over 20 singles and LPs while he was alive, and retro reissues continue to pop out long after his death into the 21st century.

His initial fame came as a radio DJ on numerous gulf stations, first at KEUN in Eunice LA circa 1956 until he got a higher paying offer at KPAC AM radio in Port Arthur, Texas. In 1957 he returned to Louisiana when he was hired to play early rock & roll and rock-a-billy at KPLC radio in Lake Charles, and soon he moved on to KNOE AM in Monroe LA. It wasn't long before he teamed up with a female partner, his new wife and female disc jockey Lee Parsley and returned to the Lake Charles airwaves at KLOU where they they were Mr & Mrs Rock n Roll Radio in Lake Charles during the 1960s. After their eventual divorce in 1970 is when Johnny restarted his live music career. Later on in 70's & 80's he was a fixture on KLVI out of Beaumont TX where he'd initially got his start in advertising sales, before popular demand put him back on the air.

In 1978 he started the Sunday morning radio show called "Cajun Bandstand". With the powerful signal of KLVI AM radio, Johnny could be heard for hundreds of miles from Beaumont east to Baton Rouge and west up to Brenham playing Cajun music and serving up "Dark Roast" Community Coffee entertaining thousands of listeners weekly through out the bayous and pines of Louisiana out into the plains of Southeast Texas weekly up until his sudden death in 1984. He and his second wife Janet had two children, his son, Johnny "John Boy" Janot, and a daughter, Johnette Raylin Janot; all whom can be seen in this lively KFDM-TV PM Magazine profile made in early 1983, a year before his untimely death https://texasarchive.org/2017_00697