Peerie Willie Johnson

Willie Johnson was a sickly child on Yell. He was given a ukulele during a long illness and soon moved on to the guitar. He heard jazz and swing on the radio and blended them with Shetland’s vamping style of fiddle backing, a sound he developed alongside the fiddler Tom Anderson from 1936. His playing inspired Aly Bain, Martin Taylor and generations of guitarists, and Michael Marra wrote a song about him.