I'd say three of them:

I was first exposed to Burl Ives, and thought he and his style were great: A really nice, individual voice, and a very straightforward way of presenting a song.

Pete Seeger, in what I think of as his early manifestation, when at least the LPs I was getting concentrated on traditional type folksongs, as opposed to his later, more sociological personna. This "early Seeger" is one of the two real bases of the style I try to shoot at.

Then Richard Dyer-Bennet, for his elegance. This is the other half. Not that I can pretend to have mastered either his elegance or his wonderful guitar accompaniments, but it's my other target to shoot at.

My aim may be bad, in either case.

Dave Oesterreich