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: July 30th, 2023
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Alison Brown/Steve Martin | Foggy Morning Breaking | On Banjo | Compass |
Flatt & Scruggs | Salty Dog Blues | Bear Family 1959-63 | Bear Family |
Tony Rice | You Don’t Know My Mind | California Autumn | Rounder |
Po’ Ramblin’ Boys | East Bound and Down | (single) | Smithsonian |
Lonesome River Band | Perfume Powder and Lead | Finding the Way | Sugar Hill |
Front Range | One Beautiful Day | (same) | Sugar Hill |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | A Little Bit of Bluegrass | (same) | Pinecastle |
Lynn Morris Band | Black Pony | Lynn Morris Band | Rounder |
Jason Barie | That’s Why You Left Me So Blue | Radioactive | Billy Blue |
Roxboro Connection | That’s the Sound of a Breaking Heart | Making the Connection | Roxboro |
Grascals | Road of Life | And Then There’s This | Mountain Home |
Mike Mitchell | Making Hay | Fathers and Sons | Turnberry |
Starlette & Big John | Straight 58 | Living in the South | Rebel |
Alecia Nugent | Too Good to Be True | A Little Girl, A Big Fourlane | Rounder |
Bluegrass Album Band | The Old Home Town | Songs of Flatt & Scruggs | Rounder |
Irene Kelley | Come Some Winter Morning | Snow White Memories | IRK |
Flatt & Scruggs | Foggy Mountain Breakdown | Complete Mercury Sessions | Mercury |
Al Batten | Sweet Blue Eyed Darling | Bluegrass, Reunion Style | Al Batten |
Ashby Frank | Where I’m Bound | Leaving is Believing | Mountain Home |
Starlette & Big John | Makin’ Tracks to Macon | Living in the South | Rebel |
Blue Highway | Lonesome State of Mind | (single) | Rounder |
Grass Cats | Home to Carolina | (same) | New Time |
Jason Carter | King of the Hill | Lowdown Hoedown | Fiddle Man |
Rex Williams | Rose in Paradise | Live at A. M. Fountain Store | Untraveled Road |
Larry Cordle | East Kentucky Blues | (single) | Mighty Cord |
Balsam Range | Trains I’ve Missed | (same) | Mountain Home |
Bluegrass Album Band | My Home’s Across the Blue Ridge Mtns | Vol. V, Sweet Sunny South | Rounder |
Authentic Unlimited | Long Gone | Authentic Unlimited | Billy Bllue |
Kicking Grass | Gasoline Blues | The Kicking Grass Band | |
Joe Mullins | I’ve Been Down That Road | Let Time Ride | Billy Blue |
Rebecca Frazier | Human Highway | When We Fall | |
Kody Morris | Mountain Rosalie | Rhinestone Revival | Rebel |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | Carolina Pig Picking Time | A Little Bit of Bluegrass | Pinecastle |
Terry Baucom | Here in the Country | (same) | Driving Duke |
Special Consensus | Alberta Bound | Great Blue North | Compass |
Kathi Hinton Nixon | Picking with the Boys | Picking With the Boys | Turquoise |
Nashville Bluegrass Band | The Boys are Back in Town | (same) | Sugar Hill |
Larry Sparks | Virginia Blue | Classic Bluegrass | Rebel |
Mike Mitchell | Love of the Mountains | Fathers and Sons | Turnberry |
Larry Stephenson | The Blues Don’t Care | What Really Matters | |
Laurie Lewis | Who Will Watch the Home Place | True Stories | Sugar Hill |
Ashby Frank | Where I’m Bound | Leaving is Believing | Mountain Home |
Alison Kraus/ Cox Family | I Know Who Holds Tomorrow | (same) | Rounder |
Billy Strings | Life to Go | Me and Dad | Rounder |