“Blues at Sunrise” was one of several signature pieces contributed to the blues canon by pianist Leroy Carr, one of the most influential bluesmen of the pre-World War II era. Carr’s litany of woes is a distillation of the blues {“such a miserable feeling, a feeling I do despise”) and its influence on Robert Johnson and other blues legends is obvious. The initial release, a 78 rpm single on the Vocalion label, was credited to Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell in recognition of Blackwell’s vital role on guitar in their classic partnership. In 1962 it became the title track for a historic Carr LP on Columbia that is already in the Blues Hall of Fame. “Blues Before Sunrise” was recorded in St. Louis on February 21, 1934, only a year before Carr died at the age of thirty.
