This week’s Blues Before Sunrise returns to one of the program’s favorite formats—no special theme, no featured artist, simply five carefully curated hours of outstanding vintage recordings spanning nearly half a century of American musical history. From recordings made in 1922 through the golden years of rhythm and blues and Chicago electric blues, every hour offers a fresh mix of familiar classics and overlooked treasures.

The program begins with an elegant Hour One built around great vocalists whose careers crossed the worlds of jazz, blues, and popular music. Joe Williams delivers several outstanding performances that showcase his rich baritone and effortless swing, while Sarah Vaughan contributes four memorable recordings that remind listeners why she remains one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time. Jimmy Witherspoon adds his unmistakable blues style before the Jubilaires provide a touch of vocal harmony. The hour also features boogie-woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis, whose classic “Honky Tonk Train” remains one of the defining piano performances of the era. One of the hour’s highlights is the rare Eddie Green recording “Big Business,” taken from the Broadway production Hot Chocolates, featuring music associated with Fats Waller. Lester Young closes the hour with the timeless “Jumpin’ at the Woodside.”

Hour Two shifts toward rhythm and blues, opening with Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown, Jimmy McCracklin, Titus Turner, LaVern Baker, and Ivory Joe Hunter. These artists helped define postwar R&B with energetic vocals, memorable songwriting, and danceable rhythms. The latter half of the hour transitions into traditional gospel, featuring Rev. A.W. Nix, the Swan Silvertones, Harmonizing Four, Wings Over Jordan, and other legendary groups whose powerful performances continue to inspire generations of listeners.

Hour Three travels back to the prewar era with an outstanding collection of blues recorded during the 1920s and 1930s. Roosevelt Sykes and Lonnie Johnson headline a lineup that also includes the Famous Hokum Boys, Memphis Jug Band, Mamie Smith, Sara Martin, Josie Miles, Peetie Wheatstraw, Washboard Sam, and Jazz Gillum. These recordings capture the remarkable diversity of early blues, from rural traditions and jug bands to urban piano blues and classic female blues singers.

Electric blues dominates Hour Four as Johnny Guitar Watson, Bobby Bland, John Lee Hooker, James Cotton, Bo Diddley, Billy Boy Arnold, Jerry McCain, Lightning Slim, Lonesome Sundown, and Buster Brown demonstrate how the blues continued evolving during the 1950s and early 1960s. Their recordings reflect the growing influence of amplified guitars, harmonicas, and rhythm sections that helped shape modern blues and rock music.

Hour Five offers a relaxed late-night atmosphere with jazz, vocal harmony, soul, and blues. The Delta Rhythm Boys, Don Byas, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Lou Donaldson, and Sam Cooke provide sophisticated performances before the spotlight returns to Chicago blues through Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, Eddie Boyd, B.B. King, Little Arthur, and Kid Thomas. Fleetwood Mac’s instrumental classic “Albatross” once again provides the traditional closing to another memorable edition of Blues Before Sunrise.

Whether listeners enjoy early acoustic blues, vocal jazz, classic gospel, postwar rhythm and blues, or Chicago electric blues, this week’s program offers a little of everything. It’s another reminder that some of the greatest recordings ever made remain just as exciting, entertaining, and influential today as when they were first committed to shellac nearly a century ago.