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: November 27th, 2022
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Bluegrass 95 | Whiskey Before Breakfast | Bluegrass 95` | Pinecastle |
Flatt & Scruggs | Blue Ridge Cabin Home | Foggy Mountain Jamboree | County |
Bill Monroe | Georgia Rose | In the Pines | MCA |
Ralph Stanley | Christmas Time’s A’Comin’ | Christmas Time with Ralph Stanley | Rebel |
Joe Mullins | Big City | (single) | Billy Blue |
Country Gentlemen | Christmas Time Back Home | (same) | Rebel |
Pam Gadd | Bluegrass Survival | (single) | Pam Gadd |
Jerry Douglas | Away in a Manger | Sugar Plums | Sugar Hill |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | A Little Bit of Bluegrass | (single) | Pinecastle |
Special Consensus | Go Tell It on the Mountain | Christmas in the Smokies | |
Laura Orshaw | Hank | Solitary Diamond | Dark Shadow |
Grass Cats | Favorite Christmas Memories | Christmas in Carolina | Blue Circle |
Gena Britt | A Little Bit of You | (single) | Melton & Miller |
Larry Stephenson | Away in a Manger | Christmas in the Smokies | |
Lonesome River Band | Hey Day | (same) | Mountain Home |
Bluegrass Album Band | Your Love is Like a Flower | Songs of Flatt & Scruggs | Rounder |
Blue Highway | On the Roof of the World | (single) | Rounder |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | Christmas in Carolina | (same) | Blue Circle |
Authentic Unlimited | Hannah | Authentic Unlimited | Mountain Home |
Cox Family | Everybody’s Reaching Out for Someone | (same) | Rounder |
Mike Mitchell | Making Hay | (single) | Turnbery |
Joe Mullins | Old Fashioned Christmas | Christmas 2022 | Billy Blue |
David Parmley | All Dressed Up | (single) | Hideaway |
J.D. Crowe & New South | White Freightliner | Come on Down to My World | Rounder |
Authentic Unlimited | Before You Miss Me | Authentic Unlimite4d | Mountain Home |
Tim & Mollie O’Brien | Christ Was Born in Bethlehem | Sugar Plums | Sugar Hill |
Dave Adkins | We’re All Crazy | (same) | Mountain Fever |
Patty Loveless | Blue Grass, White Snow | (same) | Epic |
Micky Harris | Tractor For Sale | Things I Like | MJH |
Lonesome River Band | Mary Ann is a Pistol | Hey Day | Mountain Home |
Nixon, Blevins & Gage | What Child is This | Picking on Christmas | Clover |
Tennessee Bluegrass Band | I’m Warming Up to an Old Flame | The Future of the Past | Billy Blue |
Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra | Smokey Mountain Railroad | Migrants | Hayde |
Darin & Brook Aldridge | Someday Soon | Faster & Farther | Mountain Home |
John Starling | Beautiful Star of Bethlehem | Sugar Plums | Sugar Hill |
Patty Loveless | Santa Train | Blue Grass, White Snow | Epic |
Darin & Brooke Aldridge | Light of the Stable | Christmas 2022 | Billy Blue |
Nu-Blu | Christmas in Dixie | Christmas in Carolina | Blue Circle |
Sharp Flatpickers | Arkansas Traveler | Sundrops on the Water | Mountain Fever |
Apple & Setser | Grandma Danced to the AK Traveler | Apple & Setser | Bell Buckle |
Blue Highway | Tears Fell on MO | Marbletown | Rounder |
Chatham Rabbits | Come Home | All I Want From You | Robust |
Chris Jones | Everybody’s Got a Line | (single) | Mountain Home |
Doyle Lawson | Christmas Medley | Sugar Plums | Sugar Hill |