Hour 3 turns toward an earlier body of blues recordings, bringing together pianists, guitarists, singers, duos, and string-band performers in a program that is packed with individual voices. The hour’s strength lies in its close sequencing. Rather than framing the material with broad historical claims, Blues Before Sunrise lets one artist follow another and makes the contrasts audible through the order of the records.
Roosevelt Sykes opens with “She Left Me Cold in Hand,” followed by Buddy Moss on “Somebody Kept Calling Me.” Curley Weaver’s “Trix Ain’t Walkin’ No More” continues an opening sequence built around performers whose names carry the listener through different corners of pre-war blues. Peetie Wheatstraw follows with “Fairasee Woman,” then Walter Davis brings “Moonlight Is My Spread.” Bert M. Mayes’ “You Can’t Come In” and CowCow Davenport’s “Texas Shout” maintain the hour’s emphasis on sharply defined recordings rather than a single uniform sound.
Bessie Smith’s “Careless Love Blues” arrives next, followed by Mary Stafford’s “Gonna Jazz My Way etc.” The placement creates a change in vocal perspective without interrupting the program’s flow. Ethel Waters appears with “Brother You Got Me Wrong,” Maggie Jones with “Mama Stayed Out the Whole Night,” and Gladys Bentley with “Red Beans & Rice.” The succession gives the hour a particularly strong run of women performers, each represented by a specific selection rather than by generalized description.
George Bullet Williams’ “Frisco Leaving Birmingham” leads into Sonny Boy Williamson I, heard twice with “My Little Machine” and “Jivin’ the Blues.” The back-to-back Williamson entries are one of the hour’s clearest anchors. They give the programming a brief sustained focus before the Mississippi Sheiks’ “Jailbird Lovesong” moves the sound into a different group setting. Fred Thompson closes the hour with “Up on the Hill.”
The playlist contains a notable balance of solo names and collective identities. Buddy Moss, Curley Weaver, Peetie Wheatstraw, Walter Davis, CowCow Davenport, and Sonny Boy Williamson I appear beside the Mississippi Sheiks, while Bessie Smith, Mary Stafford, Ethel Waters, Maggie Jones, and Gladys Bentley make the vocal portion of the hour especially substantial. The program does not flatten those differences into a single category. It presents the recordings as a sequence of encounters.
Piano is also a useful thread in the hour’s shape, given the presence of Roosevelt Sykes, Walter Davis, and CowCow Davenport. Yet the playlist does not become a piano-only survey. The transitions remain open enough for guitar-based and ensemble material, and the final Mississippi Sheiks selection ensures that the hour concludes with a different texture before Fred Thompson’s closing record.
Titles in this hour are allowed to stand as titles. The program does not need to assign them stories or subjects that the notes do not establish. What the playlist does establish is a strong editorial sequence: individual performances placed near enough together for listeners to hear the variety of the era without losing the hour’s coherence.
Hour 3 is therefore a concentrated pre-war set, but it is not a narrow one. It moves through blues singers, piano players, string-band material, and vocal performances with a steady sense of purpose. The result is a deeply stocked hour whose many performers remain distinct, even as their recordings form a convincing shared conversation.
Hour 3 Playlist
She Left Me Cold in Hand — Roosevelt Sykes
Somebody Kept Calling Me — Buddy Moss
Trix Ain’t Walkin’ No More — Curley Weaver
Fairasee Woman — Peetie Wheatstraw
Moonlight Is My Spread — Walter Davis
You Can’t Come In — Bert M Mayes
Texas Shout — CowCow Davenport
Careless Love Blues — Bessie Smith
Gonna Jazz My Way etc — Mary Stafford
Brother You Got Me Wrong — Ethel Waters
Mama Stayed Out the Whole Night — Maggie Jones
Red Beans & Rice — Gladys Bentley
Frisco Leaving Birmingham — George Bullet Williams
My Little Machine — Sonny Boy Williamson I
Jivin’ the Blues — Sonny Boy Williamson I
Jailbird Lovesong — Mississippi Sheiks
Up on the Hill — Fred Thompson