She is known primarily as a folk musician and folklorist specializing in historical ballads as well as a composer of stories and music in the same genre as Donovan and Fairport Convention.
Davis has won the respect of her fellow Irish/American musicians for her sensitive and powerful renderings of traditional Celtic songs, and sea ballads, and for her beautiful guitar accompaniment of Scottish, Irish and Breton dance tunes.
[citation needed] In July 1991, The Washington Post said of Davis's performance of "Such a Parcel of Rogues" in the National Cathedral that "she gave a crystal clear reading in a sparkling vibrato that illuminated the whole of that sacred place".
[citation needed] In 1993, Davis was forced to stop touring and performing before live audiences due to multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and arthritis.
Her greatest musical influences have been Donovan, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Benny Goodman and Jethro Tull.