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: January 14th, 2023
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Bluegrass 2020 | Shanandoah Breakdown | Bluegrass 2020 | Pinecastle |
Flatt & Scruggs | Foggy Mountain Top | On Foggy Mountain | County |
Bill Monroe | Body & Soul | Big Mon | Blue Circle |
Joe Mullins | Black & White | Let Time Ride | Billy Blue |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | Back to My Roots | (same) | Rural Rhythm |
Special Consensus | Alberta Bound | Blue North | Compass |
Longview | I’ve Lived a Lot in My Time | Lessons in Stone | Rounder |
Balsam Range | Snake Charmer | Kinetic Tone | Mountain Home |
Larry Stephenson | The Blues Don’t Care Who Got ‘Em | What Really Matters | |
Daniel Grindstaff | Forever Young | (single) | Bonfire |
Sideline | Crash Course in the Blues | Breaks to the Edge | Mountain Home |
Junior Sisk | Long Hard Road | (singles) | Mountain Fever |
Special Consensus | Snowbird | Blue North | Compass |
Dan Tyminski | Hey Brother | God Fearing Heathen | 8 Track |
Starlette & Big John | Making Tracks to Macon | Living in the South | Rebel |
Mike Mitchell | Love of the Mountains | Fathers and Sons | Turnberry |
Nu-Blu | The Will | (single) | Turnberry |
Kicking Grass Band | Molly | Live at the Carolina Theater | |
Bronwyn Keith-Hynes | Can’t Live Without Love | (single) | Sugar Petunia |
Molly Tuttle | El Dorado | City of Gold | Nonesuch |
Swift Creek | Rock Me Grandpa | Winner Winner Chicken Dinner | Swift Creek |
Osborne Brothers | Listening to the Rain | Once More | Sugar Hill |
Beck Buller/Jim Lauderdale | Wall Around Your Heart | (single) | Dark Shadow |
Authentic Unlimited | Fall in Tennessee | (single) | Billy Blue |
Al Batten | Devil & Farmer’s Wife | Instrumentals & Insanities | Al Batten |
Ashby Frank | Make Your Mama Proud | Leaving is Believing | Mountain Home |
Dale Ann Bradley | Kentucky Gold | Kentucky for Me | Pinecastle |
Donna Ulisse | Where the Mountain Lillies Grow | (single) | Billy Blue |
James King | Bed By the Window | (same) | Rounder |
Caroline Owens | He Loves Me Not | (single) | Skyline |
Po’ Ramblin’ Boys | Eastbound and Down | (single) | Smithsonian |
Alecia Nugent | Paper and Pen | Alecia Nugent | Rounder |
Rhonda Vincent | City of New Orleans | (single) | Upper Mgmt. |
Alison Kraus | Lucky One | Live | Rounder |
Darin & Brooke Aldridge | Jordan | (single) | Billy Blue |
James King | Echo Mountain | Bluegrass Storyteller | Rounder |
Chris Jones | Everybody’s Got a Line | (single) | Mountain Home |
Larry Cordle/Kenny Chesney | Fields of Home | All Star Duets | Larry Cordle |
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band | Wabash Cannonball | Will the Circle Be Unbroken | |
Doyle Lawson | She’s Walking Through My Memory | ||
Grass Cats | Home to Carolina | (same) | New Time |