Hour Three of this week’s Blues Before Sunrise marks the start of one of the most important interviews in the program’s history — an in-depth conversation with Jim O’Neal, the man who, more than anyone else, helped define how the modern world understands the Blues. Before there were podcasts, documentaries, or academic archives dedicated to the subject, there was Living Blues — a magazine founded in 1970 by O’Neal, Amy Van Singel, and a handful of devoted fans determined to give the music’s creators their due.

O’Neal’s story begins on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, where he grew up surrounded by the rhythms and idioms that would later shape his life’s work. He describes hearing field hollers and jukebox records as a kid, not realizing that the sounds of his hometown would eventually become the focus of his professional passion. It wasn’t until he moved north to attend Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, that his connection to the Blues deepened. Chicago in the late 1960s was alive with music — from Maxwell Street to the South Side clubs — and O’Neal found himself drawn not just to the sound, but to the stories behind it.

This first half of the interview captures that awakening. O’Neal talks about meeting fellow enthusiasts who shared his fascination — people like Amy Van Singel, who would become both his partner in life and in publishing. Together, they realized that the mainstream music press wasn’t covering the Blues with the respect or accuracy it deserved. Musicians like Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam, and Otis Spann were performing masterpieces every week, yet their work was invisible to most critics. O’Neal and Van Singel decided to change that.

From a small apartment on Chicago’s North Side, Living Blues was born — mimeographed, hand-mailed, and sustained by sheer will. O’Neal recalls the excitement of those early issues: phone calls to artists who couldn’t believe anyone cared enough to interview them, last-minute deadlines, and the scramble to find printers who understood their mission. He speaks with the modest pride of a man who knows he was in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing.

Steve Cushing, who shared many of the same stages, clubs, and musical friendships, draws out O’Neal’s insights into the Blues Revival era — the years when aging Delta musicians were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners. O’Neal describes the challenges of balancing authenticity with promotion, of trying to elevate the music without romanticizing it. His tone remains measured and respectful; for him, the Blues has always been about the people first, not the myth.

Hour Three captures the origin story — the why and how of Living Blues, and the early stirrings of a lifetime spent documenting an art form that America too often overlooked. It’s an hour filled with history, humility, and the unmistakable sense of gratitude that comes from someone who found his life’s calling among the 12-bar truths of the Blues.

As the conversation transitions into Hour Four, O’Neal begins to reflect more deeply on the fieldwork, the magazine’s growth, and his later projects like Rooster Blues Records — a natural continuation of the passion first described here.

This hour is the sound of the Blues being preserved in real time — by one of its most devoted witnesses.

Hour 3 Playlist

JIM O’NEAL INTERVIEW (Part 1)