Every Sunday evening at 6pm thousands of radios all over Central and eastern North Carolina are tuned to 94.7 QDR for the PineCone Bluegrass Show. Whether at home, at work or riding in their cars, some 4,000,000 listeners per year know that from the opening strains of Earl Scruggs’ “Nashville Blues,” Larry Nixon and Tim Woodall will broadcast three hours of the best in bluegrass, old and new. The program is sponsored by the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, or PineCone. For more information on the radio show visit pinecone.org.
The show was featured in an article in “Bluegrass Today” …you can read it here.
Meet Larry and Tim
Larry Nixon is from Elkin, North Carolina, near Galax, Virginia, the heart of mountain and traditional music country. When Larry was 12, his grandfather gave him a banjo, and since then Larry has been hooked on music, winning a talent show in the eighth grade. Larry has enjoyed playing all types of music but has returned to his “roots,” the re-creation and preservation of the finger-picking styles of guitar that he first heard in the 1960’s. Larry attended NC State University and is a consulting engineer in Raleigh. He was one of the original directors of PineCone.
Tim Woodall is the elder statesman of local bluegrass group The Grass Cats. Having played banjo for 30 years or so, he also has interest in many other types of music. As a studio musician, Tim has recorded pedal steel, bass, and guitar in addition to banjo. Occasionally he will step out front to sing lead if there are cue cards available, but he is more comfortable singing harmony. Another hobby since the age of 13 is radio broadcasting. He acquired his FCC License in 1967, and his first radio job came along in 1989 with the Pinecone Bluegrass Show.
Weekly Playlist
PineCone Playlist: December 15th, 2024
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Jim Mills | Black Jack | My Dixie Home | Sugar Hill |
Tony Trishka/Billy Strings | Browns Ferry Blues | ||
Larry Sparks | Christmas Time’s A-Coming’ | Christmas in the Mountains | Rebel |
Rhonda Vincent | City of New Orleans | Single | |
Williamson Branch | Southern Nights | Single | |
Dale Ann Bradley/Steve Gulley | Christmas the Mountain Way | Christmas the Mountain Way | |
Ricky Skaggs | Brand New Strings | Brand New Strings | Skaggs |
Seldom Scene | Georgia Rose | Live at the Cellar Door | Rebel |
Authentic Unlimited | Silent Night | Christmas 2022 | |
Alison Krauss & Union Station | The boy who wouldn’t hoe corn | Live | Rounder |
The Country Gentlemen | Traveling Kind | The Country Gentlemen | |
The Country Gentlemen | White Christmas | ||
Kenny Baker | Jerusalem Ridge | High Lonesome | MCA |
Lonesome River Band | Crime, I didn’t do | ||
Daniel Grindstaff | Looking at the world through a windshield | Heroes and Friends | |
Darin & Brooke Auldridge | The price I pay | Single | |
Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs | Home Sweet Home | Foggy Mountain Banjo | Sony |
J.D. Crowe & the Kentucky Mountain Boys | She’s just a little cute thing | Bluegrass Holiday | |
Tommy Edwards | The Christmas Letter | The Bluegrass Album | |
The Country Gazette | Don’t let nobody tie you down | Hello Operator | |
The Country Gazette | Saro Jane | Hello Operator | |
Lost & Found | Christmas in Virginia | Christmas in the Mountains | Rebel |
Larry Sparks | Blue Christmas | Christmas in the Mountains | Rebel |
The Osborne Brothers | Lonesome Feeling | Once More | Sugar Hill |
The Osborne Brothers | Me and my old banjo | Once More | Sugar Hill |
Tim O’Brien | Santa ate a gummy | ||
Molly Tuttle | Side Saddle | Crooked Tree | |
Molly Tuttle | Crooked Tree | Crooked Tree | |
Nixon, Blevins & Gage | What child is this | Pickin’ on Christmas | Clover |
Traditional Grass | Back to Hancock County | The Blues are still the Blues | |
Traditional Grass | Rough Edges | The Blues are still the Blues | |
The Grass Cats | Favorite Christmas Memories | Christmas in Carolina | |
Bluegrass 2022 | EMD | Bluegrass 2022 | Pinecastle |
Dailey & Vincent | I’ll go to my grave loving you | Sings the Statler Brothers | Rounder |
Patty Loveless | Santa Train | Bluegrass & White Snow | |
Del McCoury | Rain & Snow | Celebrating 50 Years | McCoury |
Tony Rice | Song for a Winter night | Sings Gordon Lightfoot | Rounder |
John Starling | Beautiful Star of Bethlehem | Sugar Plums | Sugar Hill |
Johnson Mountain Boys | Our Last Goodbye | Blue Diamond | Rounder |
Larry Cordle | Anything Southbound | Songs from the workbench | |
Larry Cordle | Cherokee Fiddle | Where the trees know my name | |
Al Batten & the Bluegrass Reunion | Christmas in our hometown | Christmas in Carolina | |
Alan Bibey | Time | Single | |
Bluegrass 95 | Paddy on the Turnpike | Bluegrass 95 | Pinecastle |
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver | Leavin’ on her mind | Live in Progue | |
Audie Blaylock | A voice of my savior | Christmas the Mountain Way | |
Porter Wagoner | Blue Velvet Band | ||
Alan Jackson & Alison Krauss | The Angels Cried | Honky Tonk Christmas |