The first hour of this week’s Blues Before Sunrise has no declared special theme, but it develops a clear personality through extended artist passages and a polished run of singers, pianists, and vocal groups. Milt Buckner opens with “Who Shot John,” then Dinah Washington arrives with “New York, Chicago, & Los Angeles.” That city-spanning title gives the hour an immediate sense of scale, while the music that follows remains tightly organized around individual performers.
Washington receives four consecutive selections: “New York, Chicago, & Los Angeles,” “Richest Guy in the Graveyard,” “How Deep Is the Ocean,” and “In the Rain.” The programming gives her a sustained place near the opening instead of treating her as one voice among many. The titles move from city names to private situations and familiar standards, but the show does not force them into a literal storyline. Their value is in the continuity they create: a focused Dinah Washington stretch that establishes the first hour’s vocal center.
Joe Williams follows with another four-song sequence: “You Can’t Get Away from the Blues,” “Gypsy in My Soul,” “The Right Kind of Woman,” and “Last Love, Last Kiss, Good-Bye.” His set answers Washington’s by preserving the hour’s attention to a major vocalist while changing the material and the voice. The placement of “You Can’t Get Away from the Blues” after Washington’s “In the Rain” provides a natural change in emphasis, but it is the repeated artist format that gives the first half its strength.
After that vocal pairing, Wild Bill Davis takes the program in a more instrumental direction with “Los Angeles,” “Things Ain’t What They Used to Be,” “April in Paris,” “Rough Ridin’,” and “Azure Te.” The five selections form the hour’s longest single-artist segment. Their placement after Washington and Williams opens the show’s palette without abandoning its controlled pacing. “Los Angeles” also echoes the geographical framing of Washington’s earlier “New York, Chicago, & Los Angeles,” a small programming connection that helps the hour feel designed rather than merely assembled.
Deek Watson & Brown Dots’ “For Sentimental Reasons” follows the Wild Bill Davis set, bringing the hour back to vocal harmony. Gene Rogers’ “Rhapsody Boogie” then offers another piano-centered change of pace before Sissle & Blake’s “Waiting for the Evening Mail” and Jackie Davis’ “A Woman in Love” complete the playlist. The final four selections do not imitate the long artist features that came before them. Instead, they move through distinct names in shorter steps, giving the hour a lighter and more varied close.
The sequencing reveals a useful pattern for the full broadcast. Blues Before Sunrise begins by allowing artists to occupy real space. Milt Buckner provides the introduction, Dinah Washington and Joe Williams each receive four selections, and Wild Bill Davis receives five. The rest of the hour changes the texture through Deek Watson & Brown Dots, Gene Rogers, Sissle & Blake, and Jackie Davis. This structure creates variety without losing focus, since the longer stretches make each transition meaningful.
The hour also establishes two currents that will return throughout the show: strong vocal performance and piano-led momentum. Those ideas later appear in different forms through Cecil Gant, James Booker, Little Brother Montgomery, and the sacred vocal groups of Hour 2, while the urban polish of this opening will find another counterpart in the jazz material that begins Hour 5. The first hour does not announce those future connections, but it makes them possible by defining the broadcast as a place where blues, jazz, boogie, and vocal harmony can meet.
By the time Jackie Davis closes with “A Woman in Love,” the program has traveled through a carefully arranged sequence of individual features and concise final turns. It is an opening hour that feels both broad and disciplined: city-minded in its titles, singer-centered in its first half, and shaped by piano and vocal groups as it moves toward the next hour.
Hour 1 Playlist
Who Shot John — Milt Buckner
New York, Chicago, & Los Angeles — Dinah Washington
Richest Guy in the Graveyard — Dinah Washington
How Deep Is the Ocean — Dinah Washington
In the Rain — Dinah Washington
You Can’t Get Away from the Blues — Joe Williams
Gypsy in My Soul — Joe Williams
The Right Kind of Woman — Joe Williams
Last Love, Last Kiss, Good-Bye — Joe Williams
Los Angeles — Wild Bill Davis
Things Ain’t What They Used to Be — Wild Bill Davis
April in Paris — Wild Bill Davis
Rough Ridin’ — Wild Bill Davis
Azure Te — Wild Bill Davis
For Sentimental Reasons — Deek Watson & Brown Dots
Rhapsody Boogie — Gene Rogers
Waiting for the Evening Mail — Sissle & Blake
A Woman in Love — Jackie Davis