No ordinary motel would have suited my trip to Texas, so it was suggested that I stay at Daddio's Blues Bed 'n' Breakfast. Situated a convenient 10 miles from downtown Fort Worth, Daddio's is the regular B'n'B used by many of the Blues musicians who play at J&J's Blues Bar and other blues bars in and around Fort Worth and Dallas.
If you're a big blues fan like me then you can't help but immediately feel right at home when you are shown around. Especially when you see the vast collection of CD`s, magazines and books that are supplied for your reading and listening pleasure during your stay. All this along with local blues radio and a 24 hour blues station via the cable TV network means at Daddio`s you can most certainly find yourself knee deep in the blues. In fact the whole house is a shrine to the blues. The walls are scattered with signed photo`s, old gig posters and even old original 45`s. Daddio`s is run by Regan 'Daddio` Smith who you soon find is a well known character on the local blues scene. Regan explained to me that the idea for the B`n`B came about when he decided to basically get out
If you're a big blues fan like me then you can't help but immediately feel right at home when you are shown around. Especially when you see the vast collection of CD`s, magazines and books that are supplied for your reading and listening pleasure during your stay. All this along with local blues radio and a 24 hour blues station via the cable TV network means at Daddio`s you can most certainly find yourself knee deep in the blues. In fact the whole house is a shrine to the blues. The walls are scattered with signed photo`s, old gig posters and even old original 45`s. Daddio`s is run by Regan 'Daddio` Smith who you soon find is a well known character on the local blues scene. Regan explained to me that the idea for the B`n`B came about when he decided to basically get out
of the rat race and become his own boss. And what better way for a blues fan to make a living than to start up a place where visiting musicians can spend time chillin` out in between gigs.
The easy goin` atmosphere that Regan has created is appreciated by the musicians as they don`t tend to keep regular hours. The house is set in a quiet rural part of Fort Worth and has a swimming pool and large garden area. The breakfast is of the continental variety and sets you up for the rest of the day when you can visit one of the many diners and
The easy goin` atmosphere that Regan has created is appreciated by the musicians as they don`t tend to keep regular hours. The house is set in a quiet rural part of Fort Worth and has a swimming pool and large garden area. The breakfast is of the continental variety and sets you up for the rest of the day when you can visit one of the many diners and
stuff yourself with Texas steak. All All the rooms have been individually decorated to honour blues legends, so you can pick from the Robert Johnson room, the T-Bone Walker room or of course the Stevie Ray Vaughan room. Each one has a selection of rare and popular photo`s of the artist as well as blues related memorabilia. The bedrooms
are very clean (as is the whole house), the beds are very comfortable and there is a TV in each room.
As Daddio`s was originally set up for visiting musicians who would probably only stay a few days or a week at a time, my seventeen day stay was a bit of a first. I sure enjoyed my stay and you won`t meet a more easy going person than
As Daddio`s was originally set up for visiting musicians who would probably only stay a few days or a week at a time, my seventeen day stay was a bit of a first. I sure enjoyed my stay and you won`t meet a more easy going person than
Daddio. He is a big, big fan of the blues and id keen to chat about the music, the artists and its history in Texas. He also has a few interesting stories to tell of his trips on the blues cruises and the many blues festivals he`s attended. When he`s not keepin` Daddio`s spotless he helps distribute the local blues mag 'South West Blues` and also works on websites for quite a few of the local artists and blues bars. I`ve heard since I got back that some English musicians have booked in for later in the year, so it`ll be interesting to find out how they enjoyed their stay. It doesn`t stop at England either, the word has spread to places like Japan and Sweden.
Finally, when you come to the end of your stay, there`s one more thing you have to do and that`s sign his visitors board. To keep track of the famous and not so famous who have stayed under his roof and to give furure visitors something to look at, he has put a framed board on the wall near the entrance. The framed board shown in the picture is board NO.1 but I`m sure by now he would`ve started No. 2. There`s a lot of signatures on it including Bernard Allison, Ronnie Baker Brooks, R.J. Mischo and many more that I can`t remember. Oh yeah, there is one more I`ve just remembered - mine!
Not the signature of a talented bluesman but at least it`s a little bit of me left in Texas. So if you want to stay somewhere cool when visiting the DFW area then you won`t do better than DADDIO`S. M.G.
