The road opens up in Hour 3 of Blues Before Sunrise, as this week’s “Hits the Highway” theme shifts into high gear. Every selection in this hour has one thing in common: the word “Highway” appears in the title. The result is a full hour of blues built around one of the most enduring images in American music — the open road.

For blues musicians, the highway has never been simply a strip of pavement connecting one town to another. It is a symbol of movement, independence, escape and uncertainty. It can mean leaving trouble behind, searching for something better or simply continuing down the road because there is nowhere else to go. The blues has always understood those contradictions, and highway songs provide some of the music’s most vivid examples.

Hour 3 begins the program’s two-hour highway excursion, setting the stage for Hour 4, where the theme continues. Rather than focusing on one particular artist, label or era, the hour follows the word itself, bringing together different interpretations of the highway from across the blues tradition.

That approach makes for an especially interesting listening experience. The songs may share a word in their titles, but the musical settings and stories can be remarkably different. Some recordings capture the restless energy of travel, while others emphasize the loneliness and uncertainty that can accompany life on the road. Together, they create a portrait of the highway as both a physical place and a state of mind.

The road has always been central to the blues experience. Musicians traveled from town to town looking for work, audiences moved from one venue to another, and recordings themselves carried regional sounds far beyond their places of origin. The highway became part of the language of the music because it was part of the lives of the people making it.

That history gives this week’s theme more than just a clever title. “Hits the Highway” provides a way to hear familiar blues ideas from a different perspective. Each “Highway” song becomes another stop along the route, with the destination changing from recording to recording.

And there is plenty of road left ahead. Hour 3 is only the beginning of the highway set, with another hour of similarly titled blues waiting in Hour 4. Together, the two hours create one of the week’s most distinctive features — an extended musical drive through the blues repertoire.

So turn up the radio and settle in for the ride. Hour 3 of Blues Before Sunrise hits the highway, with every tune pointing toward the road ahead. There is no need for a map; the blues knows the way.