The Dutchman (Michael P. Smith/Steve Goodman cover) - Luke Maynard, Couch Concerts 1-04

Support my original music and check out my first studio album, DESOLATION SOUND, at http://lukemaynard.bandcamp.com/ *NOTES*: This is a difficult share for me in ways I didn't expect. When I recorded it, barely a couple of months ago, songwriter Michael Peter Smith was alive and well (as far as I knew) in his native Chicago. I'm heartbroken to report he just passed away on August 3, 2020. I found out the roughest, most impersonal way possible: by skimming his Wikipedia page to make sure I got the details right on these track notes. I'll never stop playing or plugging Michael's work. In my mind, he was pound for pound the greatest American songwriter we had left. As good as Paul Simon, or Carole King, or Woody Guthrie. As good as John Prine, whom we also JUST lost. In his own way, he was as good as Bob Dylan—not a claim I drop lightly. Losing John Prine and Michael Peter Smith in a single summer is a real hard hit. My heart goes out to Chicago, where both were from, though really their songs were for everyone in all places. This song, The Dutchman, is probably Michael's most famous song. That's due in large part to Steve Goodman, who recorded it on Somebody Else’s Troubles in 1972, where I found it. But unlike most songwriters who have one widely-covered song that make them famous, virtually everything he’s written hits this kind of gold standard in rhymed narrative. Check out his albums if you can: every song is a gem, and that fretless bass part under his 70s recordings is hauntingly beautiful. The next song to follow in this series, ironically, is a John Prine song. We're losing a lot of our best storytellers this decade, and that's hard to live with. But that's one reason I keep these songs alive.

Added 9 Oct 2026