On another such piping trip, to Carrawbrough on the Roman Wall, he met his future wife, Hannah, whose brother John was also a piper.
[6] His playing was largely based around dance music, mostly from Northumberland as well as Scotland and Ireland - later on he added tunes from Shetland, Canada and the USA.
His playing of hornpipes was excellent as a model, with a clear and steady pulse, and tasteful but relatively sparse ornamentation.
His earliest recordings, such as Roxburgh Castle which appears on the LP Holey Ha'penny, which must show the greatest influence of his teacher G.G.
Some early recordings of the playing of various Northumbrian musicians, including Joe and his father, were made in the summer of 1954 for the BBC by Peter Kennedy; these were later compiled into the disc Holey Ha'penny Topic 12T 283 (1976).
In 1959, Joe, with his wife Hannah, moved to Rowhope, at the head of Coquetdale, close to the Scottish border, where he farmed for the next 17 years.
In 1975, as Joe approached retirement from farming, he agreed to start teaching weekly evening classes in Northumbrian smallpipes in Rothbury, which continue to this day.