Greetings, all! And apologies for not getting back earlier to respond to your responses re any female influences.
(Btw, like most of you, I don't think of it as a gender thing either, it's just that the absence of women - certainly at that point, and for whatever reason - was very noticeable, to me, anyway.....)

So, here goes with my early & important influences (as opposed to the many extremely talented performers I've enjoyed and been tremendously impressed by - they're probably for yet another thread....):

- Odetta (repertoire, voice & vocal approach, distinctive guitar),
- Nina Simone (ditto, but substitute piano, and add arrangements),
- Paul Robeson (voice, repertoire, political stance reflected through art),
- Malvina Reynolds (ditto, minus voice), and
- the local (Melbourne) and '62-live-in-concert Glen Tomasetti, who played guitar and sang a broad range of international songs (and gave me my first gig - obviously a woman of taste and discernment)

Cheers, chers
Margret