Occasionally criticised for poor choice of material, considering his talents, by the 90s, he was able to angle his repertoire to accommodate his own musical preferences and to please a new audience while still keeping faith with the faithful. Rankin's warm singing style and his soft, nylon-stringed guitar sound might suggest an artist more attuned to the supper-club circuit than the jazz arena, but his work contains many touches that appeal to the jazz audience, especially as he introduced more "standards" from the 30s and 40s into his performances. Reviews in the periodical Down Beat and later print media increasingly reinforced his jazz credentials.