This week’s Blues Before Sunrise moves through a broad and carefully paced span of musical settings, beginning with small-group swing and vocal jazz before settling into blues, gospel, and a pair of central features devoted to Brewer Phillips and Lowell Fulson. Across five hours, the program makes room for established names and less frequently heard recordings, using contrast and continuity to connect the selections.

The first hour carries an early-swing character, with the King Cole Trio providing a substantial centerpiece. Their sequence includes “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” “Let’s Be Sweethearts Again,” “Those Things Money Can’t Buy,” “For Once in Your Life,” “You’re the Cream in My Coffee,” and “I Know That You Know.” Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo” sits among those performances, while Ivie Anderson, Al Hibbler, Lizzie Miles, the Four Vagabonds, Ammons & Johnson, Williams & Walker, and Eddie Lockjaw Davis widen the hour’s range. The result is a varied opening built from familiar standards, vocal performances, and lively departures.

Percy Mayfield, Ray Charles, Etta James, and Wynona Carr guide the second hour into a different register. Mayfield’s opening set establishes a focused start, followed by Ray Charles selections including “Just for a Thrill,” “Black Jack,” and “You Win Again.” Etta James and Wynona Carr continue the vocal emphasis before the hour reaches Freddie Mitchell and the pairing of Blythe & Clark. Ida Cox then receives a substantial sequence, and the final stretch turns toward gospel with the Four Great Wonders, Rev. J. M. Gates, the Swan Silvertones, and Sallie Martin. That progression brings blues, r&b, and spiritual material into the same hour without losing the program’s sense of direction.

Hour 3 offers one of the week’s two major features: a return to the program’s 1990 interview with Brewer Phillips. The conversation was recorded at Delmark’s studio and centers on Phillips’s Memphis years, including his upbringing under the guidance of Memphis Minnie. The host also recalls knowing Phillips through the Florence’s Sunday-afternoon jam, where Phillips played with Hound Dog Taylor before Hound Dog passed the engagement to Magic Slim. Those firsthand connections give the feature an especially direct place within the show.

The fourth hour turns to Lowell Fulson and Baby Won’t You Jump With Me, a two-LP Swedish Crown Prince set described in the notes as a collection of clean-sounding tracks that predate Fulson’s Chess/Checker period. Its extended Fulson sequence moves from the title selection through “Rainy Day,” “Jukebox Shuffle,” “Trouble Blues,” “Back Home Blues,” “Jam That Boogie,” and “Highway 99.” The hour gives sustained attention to one artist while preserving the variety of titles that makes a long-form set rewarding.

The closing hour brings the week back into a mixed-field format. The Charioteers, Charlie Parker, Billy Eckstine, Ernestine Anderson, Charles Earland, and Sam Cooke establish a jazz-and-vocal opening before Roy Gaines, Larry Dale, Alonzo Scales, Bob Gaddy, Jackie Brenston, Billy “The Kid” Emerson, B.B. King, Jimmy McCracklin, and Fleetwood Mac carry the program to its final selection, “Albatross.” It is an expansive conclusion to a show shaped by vocal expression, guitar-led blues, jazz variety, and a respect for recordings that reward another listen.