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 5th, 2023
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Rickie Simpkins | Temperance Reel | Dancing on the Strings | Sugar Hill |
Ralph Stanley | Katy Daley | Bound to Ride | Rebel |
Flatt & Scruggs | Some Old Day | Foggy Mountain Jamboree | County |
Appalachian Road Show | Blue Ridge Mountain Baby | Jubilation | Billy Blue |
Tony Rice | Green Light on the Southern Line | Nightflyer, the Singer/Songwriter | Rounder |
Tennessee Bluegrass Band | I’m Warming Up to an Old Flame | The Future of the Past | Billy Blue |
Nixon, Blevins & Gage | Just a Bowl of Butterbeans | Picking with Friends | Clover |
Bluegrass Album Band | Don’t This Road Look Rough & Rocky | Vol 4 Songs of Flatt & Scruggs | Rounder |
Davie Parmley | All Dressed Up | Hideaway | |
New Town | Cold Iron Door | New Town | Mountain Home |
Pam Gadd | Bluegrass Survival | Home Sweet Hgy. | |
Dan Tyminski | Man of Constant Sorrow | O’Brother, Where Art Thou | Lost Highway |
Peter Rowan | Trail of Tears | New Moon Rising | Sugar Hill |
Lonesome River Band | Hey Day | Hey Day | Mountain Home |
Flatt Lonesome | I Thought You Were Someone I Knew | Too | Mountain Home |
Ashby Frank | Make Your Momma Proud | Leaving is Believing | Mountain Home |
Olivia Jo | Mighty Mississippi | ||
Rob Ickes | Tom Dooley | Bluegrass Hits | Rounder |
Authentic Unlimited | Before You Miss Me | Authentic Unlimited | Mountain Home |
Blue Highway | Marbletown | Marbletown | Rounder |
Rarely Herd | Last Time | Midnight Loneliness | Rarely Herd |
Darin & Brooke Aldridge | Grand Ole Circle | This Live We’re Living | Billy Blue |
Billy Strings | John Deere Tractor | Me and Dad | Rounder |
Blue Highway | On the Roof of the World | Rounder | |
Larry Cordle | Lower on the Hog | Lonesome Standard Time | Sugar Hill |
Volume Five | Losing My Religion | Karma | Mountain Fever |
Lonesome River Band | Down in the Willow Garden | Talking to Myself | Sugar Hill |
Alison Kraus | Down in the River to Pray | Live | Rounder |
Larry Cordle | East Kentucky Blues | Mighty Cord | |
Grass Cats | A Good Way to Get the Blues | (same) | New Time |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | A Little Bit of Bluegrass | Pinecastle | |
Sideline | The Hands That Made the Music | Come See About Me | Mountain Home |
Authentic Unlimited | Hannah | Authentic Unlimited | Mountain Home |
Starlette & Big John | Till the End of the Road | (same) | Mountain Fever |
Joe Mullins | Big City | Billy Blue | |
Sturgill Simpson | Long White Line | Cuttin’ Grass | High Top Mtn. |
Jason Barie | That’s Why You Left Me So blue | Billy Blue | |
Terry Baucom | Here in the Country | (same) | Driving Duke |
MACC | Life Goes On | Musicians Against Childhood Cancer | Rural Rhythm |
Mountain Home Family | Come See About Me | (same) | Mountain Home |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | Homesick for the Blue Ridge | Pinecastle | |
Balsam Range | Trains I Missed | (same) | Mountain Home |
Alan Jackson | There is a Time | Bluegrass Album | Universal947 |
Larry Cordle/John Starling | Lonesome Dove | Spring Training | Rounder |