This week’s Blues Before Sunrise moves through an unusually broad musical landscape while keeping a clear sense of continuity: voices, bands, pianists, guitarists, vocal groups, and rhythm sections all meet across five hours shaped by attentive sequencing. The program begins with a look at musicians caught early in their careers, then shifts through New Orleans rhythm and blues, pre-war blues, gospel, the remarkable Class of 1915, and a final hour where jazz standards, blues, and Fleetwood Mac share the same expansive frame.

Hour 1, “Catch ’Em Young,” is built around artists heard at formative points in their recorded lives. Wild Bill Davis opens the hour before an extended King Cole Trio sequence, including “Etymology,” “Little Girl,” “Put ’Em in a Box,” and “Love Nest.” The Delta Rhythm Boys follow with a substantial vocal-group set, moving from “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem” and “Georgia on My Mind” to “Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave to Me,” “Gimme Some Skin,” and “It’s So Peaceful in the Country.” Their presence establishes an early emphasis on polished ensemble singing and gives the hour a different texture from the individual blues singers heard later in the program.

The opening hour also makes room for Pete Johnson’s “Boogie Woogie Jump,” Bert Williams, Martha Copeland, Clara Burston, Katherine McDavid, and Earl Bostic. The result is a lively collection that does not impose one narrow definition of blues. It places vocal harmony, boogie-woogie, popular-song material, and blues-centered performances in conversation, showing how much room the program’s opening idea can contain.

Hour 2 turns toward a strong New Orleans and rhythm-and-blues current. Dave Bartholomew’s “Little Girl Sing Ding-a-Ling” and “Domino Medley” lead directly to a four-song Fats Domino run: “I’m Walkin’,” “Let the Four Winds Blow,” “Ain’t That a Shame,” and “The Preacher.” That sequence is followed by Pigmeat Markham, Cecil Gant, Charlie Spand, and a concentrated Alberta Hunter set. Gospel material from the Silverleaf Quartet, Rev. W. M. Mosley, and the Chosen Gospel Singers closes the hour, making spiritual music an important part of its final movement.

The third hour reaches farther into pre-war territory. Lil Green begins the set, followed by two Charlie Patton recordings and two by Peetie Wheatstraw. Tommy McClennan, Andy Boy, Freezone, Ed Andrews, George Bullet Williams, Speckled Red, Walter Davis, and Joe Pullum all appear in a program where blues, piano, vocal groups, and varied regional voices continuously reshape the hour’s sound. The inclusion of the Dinwiddie Colored Quartet and Otis Harris also keeps the musical perspective wider than a single blues lineage.

Hour 4 provides the week’s central special: the Class of 1915. Blues Before Sunrise marks the shared birth year of Calvin Frazier, Robert Jr. Lockwood, Muddy Waters, Johnny Shines, Honeyboy Edwards, Willie Dixon, Lil Son Jackson, Mercy Dee, Memphis Slim, Brownie McGhee, Wynonie Harris, and others. The hour is not presented as a historical lecture; instead, the playlist lets this extraordinary group speak through recordings that range from “Lily Mae” and “Still a Fool” to “The Grinder Man,” “Big Leg Woman,” and “Good Morning Judge.”

The fifth hour closes the show with Cootie Williams, Cannonball Adderley, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Williams, and Wes Montgomery before Fleetwood Mac occupies a central stretch. J.R. Parker, Leroy Carr, and Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross” bring the broadcast to its final stretch. Across the full five hours, the program honors tradition without treating it as fixed, allowing blues and jazz histories to remain active, surprising, and richly connected.