Johnny Swendel

Johnny Swendel was born in Coatsville, Pa, which is almost on the border of the Mason-Dixon line, so Country music came naturally to him. Before he was five yrs old he was making guitars out of cigar boxes, putting rubber bands across them and serenading door to door, collecting pennies and nickels. At the age of six his parents bought him a ukulele, which he learned to play immediately. One of his happiest moments came a year later when his brother bought him his first guitar. Soon he was picking and singing for all the kids in the neighbor hood. After world war II Johnny joined the U.S.O. special services and entertained our troops in Germany. After leaving the service he began his radio career. His first appearance was on the hillbilly jamboree at WBAL in Baltimore. From there he joined the old dominion barn dance on WRVA in Richmond. Then he signed to appear on the original jamboree at WWVA Wheeling, where he performed as a regular on the Saturday night sows in the Virginia theatre. Although always soft spoken, Johnny’s powerful singing voice could be heard at the back of the theatre without the use of a loudspeaker system. Although he’s been singing professionally for more than twenty years, he never recorded before (until he was discovered by Country International Records. Last year the company released an album of folk songs entitled: Johnny’s first folk almanac” (ci-727) available on both album and 8-track tape. This album contains many of Johnny’s fine original compositions such as the title song “ Lets put old glory back”, “ The river low” and the very unusual song “ The antique sign” we are certain you will enjoy this album. Nowadays when Johnny is not on the road he spends most of his time on his two hundred acre farm is eastern Pennsylvania where he loves to hunt and ride horseback. He also runs some of the best coon hounds east of the Mississippi