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: June 2nd, 2024
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Bluegrass 95 | Whiskey Before Breakfast | Bluegrass 95 | Pinecastle |
Flatt &Scruggs | Down the Road | Complete Mercury Sessions | Mercury |
Bluegrass Album Band | Lonesome Wind Blues | Volume Four | Rounder |
Crowe, Williams & Lawson | Hills of Road County | Stand Tall and Tough | Mountain Home |
Constant Change | Rose For Marie | Evolving | Blue Circle |
Mollie Tuttle | El Dorado | City of Gold | Nonesuch |
Nu-Blu | The Will | (single) | Turnberry |
IIIrd Tyme Out | Heading East to WV | (single) | |
Osborne Brothers | Beneath Still Waters | Once More | Sugar Hill |
Grass Cats | 85 on 85 | The Old School Road | New Time |
Daniel Grindstaff | Forever Young | Heroes and Friends | Mountain Home |
Craig Smith | Curly Headed Woman | Craig Smith | Rounder |
Emmy Lou Harris | Walls of Time | Live at the Ryman Auditorium | |
Junior Sisk | Long Hard Road | Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way | Mountain Fever |
Bronwyn Keith=-Hynes | Can’t Live Without Love | (single) | Sugar Petunia |
Sturgill Simpson | Breakers Roar | Cuttin’ Grass | High Top Mtn. |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | Keepers of the Flame | Country Grass II | Pinecastle |
Tennessee Bluegrass Band | Coming Down the Line | (single) | Billy Blue |
Patty Loveless | You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive | Mountain Soul | |
Authentic Unlimited | Fall in Tennessee | So Much for Love | Billy Blue |
Seldom Scene | Reasons to Believe | (single) | Down the Road |
James King | A Few Old Memories | Lonesome and Then Some | Rounder |
Sister Sadie | Willow | No Fear | Mountain Home |
Seldom Scene | Wait a Minute | Live at the Cellar Door | Rebel |
Peter Rowan | Trail of Tears | New Moon Rising | Sugar Hill |
Authentic Unlimited | Big Wheels | So Much For Love | Billy Blue |
Dillards | Dooley | There is a Time | |
Darin & Brooke Aldridge | The Price I Pay | Talk of the Town | Billy Blue |
Sideline | Lives of the Innocent | (single) | Mountain Home |
Tony Trischka/Billy Strings | Brown’s Ferry Blues | (single) | Down the Road |
Becky Buller/Jim Lauderdale | Wall Around Your Heart | (single) | Dark Shadow |
Billy Strings | John Deere Tractor | Me and Dad | Rounder |
Bearfoot | Love Choses You | Back Home | |
Po’ Ramblin’ Boys/Jim Lauderdale | Long and Lonesome Letting Go | Long and Lonesome Letting Go | Skycrunch |
Seldom Scene | California Cotton Fields | Live at the Cellar Door | Rebel |
Becky Buller | Jubilee | (single) | Dark Shadow |
Missy Raines | Ghost of a Love | Highlander | Compass |
Vince Gill | Give Me the Highway | Little Brother | |
Joe Mullins | If I’d A Wrote That Song | Story We Tell | |
Sturgill Simpson | Tennessee | Cuttin’ Grass | High Top Mtn. |
Grass Cats | Bluegrass Man | New Time | |
Blue Highway | Lonesome Pine | (same) | Sugar Hill |
Alison Brown/Steve Martin | Bluegrass Radio | (single) | Compass |