Transcription Mystery Disc #227

This disc is damaged. It has a chip missing from the outer edge of the acetate coating. It's on both sides indicating it may have been dropped. Thankfully it falls just short of the start of the grooves. The audio is good and clear on this 78 rpm metal-core, 8-Inch Recordisc. The rhythm guitar is tuned a bit flat and the DJ stumbles over his words. This recording appears to be of a live radio broadcast.

Ted Daffan's Texans - Two of a Kind

While unlabeled, the recording is introduced by an unnamed DJ who names the artist as Ted Daffan's Texans. The song is "Two of a Kind" which is described as one off his "latest." It was released in August of 1948, which dates the disc with some accuracy. You can read the rest of Ted's discography here. Daffan is often credited with inventing that strange sub-genre of country music... Trucker music. There are a surprising number of songs about trucking; numerous LPs came out in the 1960s alone. Strange claim to fame.

He wasn't much of a radio man as a country singer. But he had a quiet phase of his career in his early 20s. He was a big fan of Hawaiian music and led a Hawaiian guitar band, the Blue Islanders on KRTH-AM in Houston.  He didn't even go country until 1934. Daffan stopped performing in the 1960s and went into music publishing. Ray Charles covered some of his tunes producing a late-career boost. Daffan died in 1996; he was 84.