By Sally Voth -- Daily Staff Writer

FRONT ROYAL - Jan "John" Rajsner thought he left his musical dreams behind the Iron Curtain when he fled his native Czechoslovakia 40 years ago.

The inspiration to pen melodies grew from a series of recent devastating events.

When the Russian Army invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, Rajsner escaped without even getting to tell his parents goodbye.

After time spent in Austria and Switzerland, Rajsner made it to America where he lived in New York and Chicago before taking a job at Monoflo, a plastics company in Winchester.

For years, the engineer worked in the plastics injection, molding and tooling field, eventually establishing and running successful companies of his own.

And, while he'd occasionally get out his guitar and do a little singing, his days of playing American-style rock music in front of fans were over. Or, so he thought.

Embittered by being unable to get a loan for one of his businesses — Rajsner says the banking industry was more interested in lending money to support the housing boom rather than manufacturing industries — he got out of the plastics industry entirely.

His sons, Andy and John — he also has a daughter Diana — bought a tractor trailer, and Rajsner agreed to be the driver. They began trucking goods from the East Coast westward.

At a weigh station down South, Rajsner's old truck was in such good mechanical condition, an inspector gave him a green sticker. Given his recent bad luck, Rajsner had been expecting a bad report.

"He said, 'Now, you've got this sticker, and they will let you be for a little while,'" Rajsner said he was told. "'No one will stop you because your truck is in very good shape.'"

Impressed by the inspector's kindness, Rajsner asked where he was and learned he was in Louisiana. He explored the area some more, taking hauling jobs there.

"So beautiful, the country is in my eyes," Rajsner said. "I saw this is the old Louisiana."

He decided Louisiana would be a good place for a depot to service the truck. Rajsner had all of the equipment and tools moved down there.

"Two months later, Hurricane Rita came and hit us, absolutely straight eye," he said. "It took that 40-foot container — fully loaded steel container — and moved it three-quarter mile."

All of the office equipment and supplies were found inside the container, all twisted together. It was a $75,000 loss that didn't qualify for FEMA aid, Rajsner said.

Dejected, he sat alongside a pond asking God how He could allow this to happen.

"I always did believe I would be spared," Rajsner said. "I was sitting there and this, like a little laugh, like if children laughs, [could be heard]. Beautiful day it was. The wind was blowing."

It was as if the hurricane never happened, he said. Waves rippled on the surface of the pond.

"That sound came," Rajsner said. "I quickly, I made it a melody of this song, 'Louisiana.'"

People could be heard hammering as buildings were reconstructed.

And that is how Rajsner wrote his first song in decades.

"It inspired me so much not to look on Louisiana like some bad land or something," Rajsner said. "It just inspired me to write a song in such a way that people will be proud of [Louisiana] and their heritage."

It speaks of "white cotton fields and riches of the sea" and "jazz and Cajun music."

At first, Rajsner wrote the tune to be performed by a philharmonic symphony, but later decided it would be better in a more lively format, such as would be sung by a jazz or Cajun singer.

Recently, Hilltop Records recorded the song, and it's sung by Cody Lyons on the album, "America."

It wasn't the first song he'd written. But, it was the first song he'd written in a long while.

"I used to have band," Rajsner, 66, said. "That was so long time ago, I just already believed it was some other guy. That was back in Czechoslovakia. I won contest in Prague."

He played guitar for a band, The Tornado, which played American-style rock.

Rajsner continues to drive his truck, and hopes to keep writing songs.

"I drive really to find what is in our country beautiful still," Rajsner said. "Every time I go out, something else is happening. It's a little adventure."

The song he's currently working on, "Keyrings," was inspired by a woman he met in a Wal-Mart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas. Her two children behind her, she approached Rajsner's truck and asked him to buy some key rings.

"'I made them all myself,'" he remembered her saying. "'It's before Christmas, and I have these two kids.' She said, 'I'm sorry if I bother.'"

Rajsner gave the woman some money, telling her to save the keyrings to try to sell to other drivers. Watching the children outside the Wal-Mart, Rajsner felt giant tears rolling down his cheeks, but didn't think they were his.

Had he not suffered the terrible business disappointments and Rita's wrath, Rajsner doesn't think he would have returned to music.

"I will be keeping writing music now," he said.

* Contact Sally Voth at svoth@nvdaily.com