Although he doesn’t use it much these days, many of the old songs use what I call “standard fingerpicking”. I don’t know if there is such a thing, but here is what I mean, as an example. (Chords: G and C. ‘h’ in the second measure means hammer-on)
G . . . C/g . . . |-3---------------|-----------3-----| ring finger |-----------0-----|-0h1-------------| middle finger |-------0-------0-|-------0-------0-| index finger |-----0-------0---|-----2-------2---| thumb |-----------------|-----------------| (thumb) |-3-------3-------|-3-------3-------| thumb
The variations are of course unlimited, but the main principle is as rock solid as the thumb ought to be: The thumb alternates between the bass strings, and the other fingers fill in.
For examples of different patterns, more or less fully written out, see the following files:
Girl of the North Country (several versions, fully written out)
Boots of Spanish Leather (same song, musically speaking)
Percy’s Song
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (basically simple, if it wasn’t for all the little details…)
Suze (The Cough Song)
Cocaine Blues
Barbara Allen (“tricky licks” department)
Rocks and Gravel
Seven Curses (quite similar to Rocks and Gravel)
Buckets of Rain (open E tuning)
Tomorrow is a Long Time (standard and open E tuning)