PineCone Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The Piedmont Council of Traditional Music (PineCone) marks its 25th anniversary season this year. The organization was launched in 1984 with the goal of calling much-deserved attention to the distinctive old-time music traditions of the Piedmont region.

The group is celebrating this milestone with a new CD compilation and a two days of music  scheduled for January. PineCone’s new CD, Going Down to Raleigh: Stringband Music in the North Carolina Piedmont 1976-1998, features 48 unique field recordings of those regional songs and dance tunes. The two-disc anthology was produced by Wayne Martin and sponsored by PineCone with funding support from the N.C. Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Martin was featured in Sunday’s News & Observer by music writer David Menconi. The interview is a great look at the history of traditional music in the Piedmont.

Going Down To Raleigh is a snapshot of a time when life in the Triangle moved at a slower pace. As recently as the early 1990s, you would still see commercials for seeds and farm supplies on local television.

“The musicians I met were all raised in a rural environment, as farmers,” Martin says. “They were very self-reliant, could fix about anything. They did music the same way.”

PineCone’s two-day Winter Music Festival is scheduled for Jan. 30–31, 2010, and promises to bring an all-star cast to Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh for a blow-out celebration. Musical artists will include Bearfoot, Tony Rice Unit, Tift Merritt, Kris Kristofferson, Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass, Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Dale Ann Bradley, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. Reserve tickets »

Catch some of the songs from Going Down to Raleigh performed at the N.C. Museum of History below.