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: February 25th, 2024
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Rice Brothers | Soldier’s Joy | The Rice Brothers | Rounder |
Bluegrass Album Band | Lonesome Wind Blues | Vol 4 | Rounder |
Flatt & Scruggs | Let the Church Roll On | ||
Doc Watson | Riding the Midnight Train | (same) | Sugar Hill |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | A Light In the Window Again | Back to My Roots | CMH |
Becky Buller/Jim Lauderdale | Stone Must Be the Wall | (single) | Dark Shadow |
Daniel Grindstaff | Forever Young | (single) | Bonfire |
IIIrd Tyme Out | Heading East to WV | (single) | |
Special Consensus | Alberta Bound | Great Blue North | Compass |
Seldom Scene | One Way Rider | Change of Scenery | Sugar Hill |
Osborne Brothers | Listening to the Rain | Once More | Sugar Hill |
Junior Sisk | Long Hard Road | (single) | Mountain Fever |
Patty Loveless | You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive | Mountain Soul | |
Po Ramblin Boys/Jim Lauderdale | Long and Lonesome Letting Go | (same) | Sky Crunch |
Highway 58 | Some Old Day | Highway 58 | Highway 58 |
Seldom Scene | Reasons to Believe | (single) | Down the Road |
Traveling’ McCourty’s | Whole of the Moon | (single) | McCoury |
Scott Tackett | Miller’s Cave | Looking Back | |
Old and In the Way | Panama Red | Old and In the Way | |
Grass Cats | Pill or Potion | Home to Carolina | New Time |
Dave Atkins | What I’m For | (What I’m For) | Billy Blue |
Molly Tuttle | Crooked Tree | (same) | Nonesuch |
Sister Sadie | Willow | (single) | Mountain Home |
Sideline | Just a Guy in a Bar | Ups, Downs | Mountain Home |
Kathy Kallick | I’m Lonesome Wherever I Go | Lonesome Chronicles | Live Oak |
Unspoken Tradition | Simple Little Town | (same) | Mountain Home |
Grascals | Me & John & Paul | Bluegrass # 1 | Rounder |
Benson | Lay ‘Em Down | (single) | Mountain Home |
Starlette & Big John | Makin’ Tracks to Macon | Living in the Sough | Rebel |
Rex Williams | Rose in Paradise | Live at A. M. Fountain | Untraveled Road |
Roxboro Connection | That’s the Sound of a Breaking Heart | ||
Blue Highway | North Side | (single) | Down the Road |
Adam Steffey/Alison Kraus | Warm KY Sunshine | One More for the Road | |
Ashby Frank | Roll on Mississippi | Leaving is Believing | Mountain Home |
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes | Can’t Live Without Love | (single) | Sugar Petunia |
Balsam Range | Richest Man in the Graveyard | Moxie and Mettle | Mountain Home |
Joe Mullins | Black & White | Let Time Ride | Billy Blue |
Nu-Blu | The Will | (single) | Turnberrry |
Authentic Unlimited | Fall in Tennessee | (single) | Billy Blue |
Billy Strings | Way Downtown | Me & Dad | Rounder |
Grascals | Road of Life | And Then There’s This | Mountain Home |
Nixon Blevins & Gage | Blues, Stay Away From Me | Picking On Doc | Clover |