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: March 26th, 2023
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
J. D. Crowe & New South | Sally Goodin | J. D. Crowe & New South | Rounder |
Flatt & Scruggs | Your Love is Like a Flower | Foggy Mountain Jamboree | County |
Doyle Lawson | Misery River | Original Band | Sugar Hill |
Eric Strickland | Black & White | Black & White & Blue | Eric Strickland |
Lonesome River Band | Hey Day | Hey Day | Mountain Home |
Eric Uglum | Shenandoah Wind | (same) | |
Al Batten | Harold’s Super Service | Instrumentals & Insanities | Al Batten |
Authentic Unlimited | Before You Miss Me | Authentic Unlimited | Mountain Home |
Grass Cats | Home to Carolina | (same) | New Time |
Grascals | Road of Life | ||
Pam Gadd | Bluegrass Survival | (single) | Home Sweet Hgy. |
Boxcars | It’s Just a Road | (same) | Mountain Home |
Tennessee Bluegrass Band | I’m Warming Up to an Old Flame | The Future of the Past | Billy Blue |
James King | Jason’s Farm | Three Chords & the Truth | Rounder |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | A Little Bit of Bluegrass | (same) | Pinecastle |
Bluegrass Album Band | Big Spike Hammer | CA Connection | Rounder |
Flatt & Scruggs | Foggy Mountain Breakdown | The Complete Mercury Sessions | Mercury |
Sideline | Thunder Dan | Breaks to the Edge | Mountain Home |
Peter Rowan | Song That Made Hank WMs. Dance | Calling You From My Mountain | Rebel |
Terry Baucom | Here in the Country | (same) | Driving Duke |
Sidetrack | It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels | Tunes From a Tar Heel town | Sidetrack |
Nu-Blu | Horse Thieves & Moonshiners | (single) | Turnberry |
Joe Mullins | Big City | Let Time Ride | Billy Blue |
Nixon, Blevins & Gage | Windy & Warm | Pickin’ On Doc | Clover |
Lonesome River Band | Carolyn the Teenage Queen | One Step Forward | |
Dale Ann Bradley/J. P. Pennington | The Sun is Going to Shine | Kentucky for Me | Pinecastle |
Al Batten | Carrol County Accident | Bluegrass Reunion Style | Al Batten |
Authentic Unlimited | Hannah | Authentic Unlimited | Mountain Home |
Bluegrass Album Band | Chalk Up Another One | Volume One | Rounder |
Irene Kelley/Kruger Brothers | Come Some Winter Morning | Snow White Memories | IRK |
James King | Chiseled in Stone | Three Chords and the Truth | Rounder |
Chris Jones | The Price of Falling | (single) | Mountain Home |
Bluegrass Band | Dueling Banjos | Once Again From the Top | Hay Holler |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | Carolina Pig Pickin’ Time | A Little Bit of Bluegrass | Pinecastle |
Tony Rice | In the Early Morning Rain | Tony Rice Sings Gordon Lightfoot | Rounder |
Alison Kraus | Every Time You Say Goodbye | (same) | Rounder |
Hayde Bluegrass Orchestra | Going Back To Harlan | Migrants | Hayde |
Sturgill Simpson | Tennessee | Cuttin’ Grass | High Top Mtn. |
Sweet Potato Pie | Leaving Colorado | (single) | Sweet Potato Pie |
Billy Strings | Little White Church | Me & Dad | Rounder |
Molly Tuttle | Crooked Tree | (same) | Nonesuch |
Missy Armstrong | Ain’t Going Down to the River | (single) | Melton & Milan |
Detour | A Better Place | (same) | Mountain Fever |