Hour 3 of this week’s Blues Before Sunrise transports listeners back to the foundational era of the blues, highlighting key prewar recordings that helped define the genre and influenced the postwar blues explosion in Chicago. The hour emphasizes the artistry of musicians whose styles and innovations would ripple through decades of blues history.

The hour opens with Blind Blake’s “Seaboard Stomp,” a dazzling display of fingerstyle guitar work that earned Blake the title “King of Ragtime Guitar.” Blake’s complex picking patterns set a standard for blues guitarists and demonstrated the technical sophistication that prewar blues artists were capable of achieving. Following Blake, Buddy Boy Hawkins’ “Voice Throwin’ Blues” provides a raw vocal delivery, steeped in the Delta tradition, paired with understated guitar accompaniment, reflecting the storytelling roots of the early blues.

Charlie Taylor’s “Heavy Suitcase Blues” and St. Louis Jimmy’s “My Dream Blues” continue the journey into early blues craftsmanship. Taylor’s track illustrates the working-class narratives that permeated much of the prewar repertoire, while Jimmy’s pieces, including “My Story Blues,” showcase a combination of vocal improvisation and guitar phrasing that influenced later urban blues styles.

The hour then shifts to harmonica-driven performances, with Washboard Sam’s “Sun’s Gonna Shine in My Door” delivering a bright, rhythmic energy, and Jaybird Coleman’s “No More Good Water” demonstrating the emotive potential of harmonica melodies. These recordings highlight the versatility of the blues, emphasizing how instruments could carry both rhythmic and melodic weight in prewar ensembles.

Pioneering work by Sonny Terry is represented with “Fox Chase” and “Mountain Blues.” Terry’s harmonica artistry is characterized by its high-energy rhythms and expressive wailing tones, which would later influence electric blues harmonica players in the postwar era. His work shows how traditional acoustic blues could communicate both urgency and narrative depth.

Female blues artists are central to this hour, beginning with Laura Smith’s “Two-Faced Woman Blues” and Mamie Smith’s “Goin’ Crazy With the Blues” / “What Have You Done.” These recordings underscore the critical role women played in developing blues vocal phrasing, lyrical storytelling, and emotional expression. The influence of these performers extends well into the Chicago blues era, informing the work of artists like Koko Taylor and Etta James.

The hour also includes classics from Ida Cox, with “Chicago Monkey Man Blues” and “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues,”** which exemplify Cox’s commanding presence and sharp storytelling. Her tracks reveal the thematic boldness of early female blues artists, who often addressed topics of love, betrayal, and resilience with unflinching honesty. James Boodle It Wiggins’ “Gotta Shave ‘Em Dry” and Kid Stormy Weather’s “Short Haired Blues” round out the hour, providing humorous, risqué, and socially reflective moments, highlighting the breadth of early blues content and performance styles.

Hour 3 serves as a crucial reminder of the continuum from prewar to postwar blues. Each artist featured helped lay the groundwork for the electric blues revolution in Chicago and beyond. By revisiting these recordings, listeners gain insight into how foundational techniques, lyrical themes, and stylistic innovations from the 1920s and 1930s were carried forward, reinterpreted, and electrified by later blues legends.

For both newcomers and longtime blues enthusiasts, this hour functions as a concise refresher course on the origins of blues. It celebrates the musicians whose artistry and innovation shaped a genre that continues to influence countless artists today. The hour concludes with a recognition of the deep connections between the acoustic prewar sounds and the electrified postwar blues, encouraging listeners to hear the blues as a living tradition, ever-evolving yet deeply rooted in its earliest expressions.

Hour 3 Playlist

• Seaboard Stomp – Blind Blake
• Voice Throwin’ Blues – Buddy Boy Hawkins
• Heavy Suitcase Blues – Charlie Taylor
• My Dream Blues – St. Louis Jimmy
• My Story Blues – St. Louis Jimmy
• Sun’s Gonna Shine in My Door – Washboard Sam
• Look What You Are Today – Jazz Gillum
• No More Good Water – Jaybird Coleman
• Fox Chase – Sonny Terry
• Mountain Blues – Sonny Terry
• Two-Faced Woman Blues – Laura Smith
• Goin’ Crazy With the Blues – Mamie Smith
• What Have You Done – Mamie Smith
• Chicago Monkey Man Blues – Ida Cox
• Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues – Ida Cox
• Gotta Shave ‘Em Dry – James Boodle It Wiggins
• Short Haired Blues – Kid Stormy Weather