Tião Carreiro (real name: José Dias Nunes), born in Monte Azul, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, started to learn how to play the acoustic guitar at a very young age. Later, only 13, he went to work in the Giglio Circus, where he made a music pair with his cousin Waldomiro. The circus owner encouraged Tião to learn the viola caipira (a kind of steel ten-string acoustic guitar). Tião Carreiro played along with various other violeiros (viola caipira players that create música caipira or Brazilian country music).