I'll repeat a quote I heard from a fine jazz guitarist, Sal Salvador: "A musician's style is the summation of his limitations." A jazz variant on Doc's statement. But, that tends to accentuate the negative. I think your style grows naturally out of the music that you've listened to and sang(or played) along with all of your life. That's why styles are so idosyncratic. No one else has the same ingredients as you do. When you ask people who their influences are (and they're not trying to be terminally clever) it's amazing to hear how broad a range of music many people love. There's a little bit of the Penguins and the Five Satins in my style, mixed in with Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Doc Watson, Clarence Ashley, The Staples Singers, The Swan Silvertones, Elvis and Johnny Cash, Don Williams, Steve Earle, Clancy Hayes, Lonnie Donnegan and dozens more. Mix it all together and that's my style. There may be a good separate thread there..

Jerry