Early recordings of singles where done at: Ken Ritter's KRCO Label (Beau-tex Music Co), Floyd Swallow's Jin Label, and Huey Meaux's Pacemaker label, Dart Records, KRCO, Frolic, Diamond, Goldband and Todd . Some of these sessions were recorded under pseudonyms like: Texas Guitar Slim, or under band names like: Black Plague, Johnny & the Jammers, The Crystaliers.
Johnny actually "cut his teeth" in Louisiana, and learned much from many of those artists. Johnny has always been kinda tightlipped on some of his real early session work, and understandably so. His guitarmanship with Burl Boykin, The Blues Kings, Elton Anderson and Margaret Lewis, shows some flaws. A rough lick here and there, as does some of his session work with Clarence Garlow. But it also shows is just how fast he became an accomplished guitarist. Most people think of 1962 as the earliest Johnny recordings, with the Jammer's 45 thrown in as a fluke for a 15 year old!
That was hardly the case. Johnny was already working as hard as he possibly could at 15. Roy Ames tried to lay claim to taking Johnny to sessions when he was that young. Johnny was using every avenue available to him to fine-tune his skill, and actually Roy came along well after Johnny had been recorded many times. Still, in later years, Roy tried to claim Johnny's earliest works as "his doing". Claiming tracks like Geisha Rock, or Ice Cube were recorded even prior to Johnny and the Jammers, by him.
