Ted Daffan

A songwriter and guitarist in the western swing tradition, Ted Daffan emerged out of a dust-soaked 1930s Texas to craft enduring songs that mined the classic themes of the honky-tonk lifestyle: bad luck, cheatin', and drinkin'. After country star Milton Brown persuaded Daffan to close his Houston-based musical repair shop and try his luck as a performer, it didn't take the songwriter long to pen his first hit, "Truck Drivin' Blues," for bandleader Cliff Bruner. The tune is generally regarded as the one that created the truck driver mythos that would appear so often in the decades of country music to come. The success led to a deal for Daffan's own band, the Texans, and for the next several years he scored hits with such tunes as 1940's "Worried Mind" and the title-says-it-all-number "Born To Lose," among others. The latter song found its inspiration in a remark Daffan overheard as he watched a poker game. In the 1960s Daffan drifted from the performing side of music altogether, creating a successful Nashville publishing company with Hank Snow and eventually returning to Houston to continue on the business side of things before retiring from music altogether, with his reputation intact.
© Steve Kurutz /TiVo