PineCone, Piedmont Council of Traditional Music

PineCone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music, is a Raleigh nonprofit that has been at this since 1984. A group of friends started it to bring traditional music down from the mountains to the city, and it has been picking and singing those songs ever since.

It is a membership organization, and the work is to preserve, present and promote folk music and dance in North Carolina. That happens through concerts, festivals and regular jam sessions where people play together, under the banner Where Roots Music Matters.

What to know

• It is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
• Its bluegrass festival draws more than 200,000 people downtown.
• That festival is credited with about 18 million dollars of yearly impact for Wake County.
• The Down Home Concerts series runs at the Martin Marietta Center for the Performing Arts.
• Touring roots musicians from around the world play that concert series.