a week from 1966 to 1968. He was in a Peter, Paul and Mary-style trio for a couple of years which included his wife Barbara Barrow and fellow singer Ron Kickasola. They expanded into a rock band called Juarez and recorded one album for Decca before disbanding. Smith and his wife then played as an acoustic duo for most of the early 1970s. Steve Goodman's recording of "The Dutchman" in 1973 on his album Somebody Else's Troubles, formally introduced Smith's songs to a large audience, and propelled "The Dutchman" into becoming Smith's most popular song. Because Goodman was Chicago-based and had been playing several of Smith's songs in his act, it opened a lot of opportunities for Smith in Chicago. So, in 1976 Smith and Barrow moved from Detroit to Chicago, where he became a regular in the city's folk clubs for several years, which allowed him to stop touring. During this time in the early 80s, he formed a band called Paradise with his wife, Barbara Barrows, and friends Jessica Baron and Dan Tinen. The band played regularly at the Earl of Old Towne, while Michael continued to perform regularly at the No Exit Cafe. During this period he took a day job as a clerk for Time and continued co-writing songs with notable musician friends from around the country and his songs continued to get played and recorded by others all through that time. Besides "The Dutchman," which Suzy Bogguss covered on her debut effort Suzy in 1981, Smith classics and their interpreters included "Spoon River", a song inspired by the poems of Edgar Lee Masters, which was also recorded by Goodman. Jimmy Buffett and Goodman both recorded "Elvis Imitators", Michael's tongue in cheek ode to the King's legions. "Dead Egyptian Blues," a song about ex-pharaohs and their riches, was recorded by Trout Fishing in America. A couple of other Smith classics include "Crazy Mary", a song about the 'crazy lady next door' in everyone's life that Bonnie Koloc and also David Allan Coe recorded, and "Last Day of Pompeii", – a smooth jazz number about the city's impending disaster, which appears on recordings by Trout Fishing in America, Anne Hills, Cathy Miller, and the swing recordings of Harmonious Wail. In 1986, Smith found himself regularly taking the stage again. He had started to work with Anne Hills, and Hills got Smith to record two albums for Flying