 Starting on the instrument, he soon switched to the guitar, despite the fiddle's status as lead instrument in Shetland's folk music.A meeting with Anderson in 1936 got him a job with the local Islesburgh Dance Band, then the biggest band in Shetland.Hearing Eddie Lang and Django Reinhardt on the radio, he adapted their guitar style to Shetland's music, creating a sound that sounded "like a bass and a guitar playing together" according to fellow musician and writer Archie Fisher.