Odetta usually played a Gibson guitar. She doesn't play the guitar onstage anymore...she uses a pianist. Odetta often talked about loving to play in open D and moving simple chords (E,A & B7, etc.) up and down the fretboard to create new chords. She also talked about the fact that she basically used the same few chords year after year. She just found ways to vary the color by using a capo, different strumming patterns and using a variety of simple fingerpicking patterns (even though some patterns sound difficult on recordings, she said they were simple once you broke them down). She said she made sure (while teaching herself guitar, to take things slowly and gradually add speed and rythmn (sp?) to her songs.) I wish I could remember what magazine I read her thoughts and her guitar style in.

Just my 2 cents...