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: Jan. 17, 2021
Artist | Song Title | Album Title | Record Label |
Alan Munde | Hot Burrito Breakdown | Festival Favorites Revisited | |
IIIrd Tyme Out | Blue Ridge Mountain Memories | John & Mary | Rounder |
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder | How mountain girls can love | Live at the Charleston Music Hall | Skaggs |
Sister Sadie | Morning Sky | Sister Sadie II | |
Junior Sisk | Hooked on Bluegrass | Load the wagon | |
Alan Bibey & Grasstowne | Hitchhiking to California | Single | |
Longview | Hills and home | Lessons in Stone | Rounder |
Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road | They call if Bluegrass | Bill Monroe’s Ole Mandolin | Pinecastle |
Alecia Nugent | But I do | Alecia Nugent | Rounder |
Bluegrass Album Band | Big Spike Hammer | California Connection | Rounder |
Lou Reid & Carolina | Tennessee Back Roads | Time | |
Larry Cordle, Glen Duncan & Lonesome Standard Time | Kentucky King | Larry Cordle, Glen Duncan & Lonesome Standard Time | Sugar Hill |
Country Gentlemen | Matterhorn | 25 Years | Rebel |
Garrett Newton Band | Bluegrass Barn | ||
Jimmy Martin | Ocean of Diamonds | You don’t know my mind | Rounder |
Carolina Bluegrass Band | Is the blue moon still shining? | Single | |
Merle Monroe | Hello Sunshine | ||
New Grass Revival | Love someone like me | The Best of the New Grass Revival | |
Lou Reid, Terry Baucom & Carolina | I’m gonna hold to his hand | Carolina Blue | Rebel |
J.D. Crowe & the News South | Home sweet home revisited | J.D. Crowe & the News South | Rounder |
Jimmy Arnold | Pan handle rag | Strictly Arnold | |
Jimmy Martin | 20/20 Vision | Fifty Golden Years | |
Jimmy Martin | Big Country | ||
Sturgill Simpson | Just let go | Cuttin’ Grass | |
Sturgill Simpson | Old King Coal | Cuttin’ Grass | |
Sturgill Simpson | Sitting here without you | Cuttin’ Grass | |
Terry Baucom | You live in a world all your own | Never thought of looking back | |
J.D. Crowe & the News South | I’ll stay around | World’s Greatest Show | Sugar Hill |
J.D. Crowe & the News South | I ain’t broke but I’m badly bent | World’s Greatest Show | Sugar Hill |
Al Batten & the Bluegrass Reunion | Heartbreak Mountain | Live at the Kinston Winter Festival | |
Alison Krauss & Union Station | Another night | Every time you say goodbye | Rounder |
Alison Krauss & Union Station | The road is a lover | So long, so wrong | Rounder |
IIIrd Tyme Out | Medals for Mothers | Back to the Mac | |
Cox Family | Another lonesome morning | Beyond the city | Rounder |
Seldom Scene | Satan’s Choir | A change of scenery | Sugar Hill |
Seldom Scene | West Texas Wind | A change of scenery | Sugar Hill |
Sideline | Crash course in the blues | Breaks to the edge | |
The Grass Cats | Prisoner of your love | The Mountains My Baby and Me | New Time |
Clyde Mattocks | Hugging the hound | Hugging the hound | |
Continental Divide | In Despair | On the Divide | Pinecastle |
Continental Divide | Wing and a prayer | Continental Divide | Pinecastle |
Constant Change | Old Dangerfield | Evolving | |
Emily Kirsch | Just another Memory | Just another memory | |
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver | This dream I’m in | News is out | Sugar Hill |
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver | I’d rather die young | The Original Band | Sugar Hill |
Irene Kelly | Carolina Wind | These Hills | |
Tony Rice | Little Sadie | Manzanita | Rounder |
Tony Rice | Manzanita | Manzanita | Rounder |
Country Gentlemen | The legend of the Rebel Soldier | The Award-Winning Country Gentlemen | |
The Grass Cats | Johnson’s Love | 9 Lives and More | New Time |
Sideline | Return to Windy Mountain | Breaks to the edge | |
Sam Bush | The Ballad of Stringbean & Estelle | Circles around me |