Songs of Michael [Peter] Smith

Subject: New Michael Smith
From: Chris in Wheaton
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 03:20 PM

Michael and Jamie O'Reilly are doing their concert show, The Gift of the Magi, around Chicago. Their cd has just been released - should be great.
See

Subject: RE: New Michael Smith
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 03:57 PM

The trouble with a man like Michael Smith is that people have to wonder WHICH Michael Smith you're talking about. This is not the one who makes a lot of money on gospel music. This is the one who writes wonderfully quirky songs like "Dead Egyptian Blues."
His Website is http://www.michaelsmithmusic.com.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: ADD: Panther in Michigan (Michael Peter Smith)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Apr 23 - 03:45 PM

https://michaelpetersmith.com/lyrics/panther.shtml

PANTHER IN MICHIGAN
(Michael Peter Smith)

There's a panther in Michigan
Don't that make your Halloween
There's a panther in Michigan
Although he is seldom seen
And he's following the water
And the ways of the Indian
And he's crossing the border
To Indiana

There's an awful lot of cover
Down along the Raisin River
We would set up on the one side
He'd show up on the other
I know people used to wonder
Why we couldn't catch the panther
There's an awful lot of cover
Down along the Raisin River

When a farmer in Manchester called me
I was there in minutes
Following a trail of feathers
Thru the high grass when he screamed
Thirty-four years in law enforcement
I'd never been so scared
I could see where he was going
By the way the grass was moving

There's a panther in Michigan
Don't that make your Halloween
There's a panther in Michigan
Although he is seldom seen
And he's following the water
And the ways of the Indian
And he's crossing the border
To Indiana

Now, people who know panthers say
That they are lazy hunters
And will take a prey that's wounded
Over one that's healthy
And they might mistake some child
Playing in a sandbox
For some kind of wounded critter
Down along the Raisin River

Test drivers saw the panther
At the Chrysler proving grounds
It was during hunting season
He was out there on the track
And he knew if he went in there
That he'd be safe from hunters
He's an uncanny animal

There's a panther in Michigan
Don't that make your Halloween
There's a panther in Michigan
Although he is seldom seen
And he's following the water
And the ways of the Indian
And he's crossing the border
To Indiana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ugUJpTr26Q

https://folkways.si.edu/michael-smith-and-pat-flemming/panther-in-michigan/american-folk/music/track/smithsonian

Somebody sang this today to the tune of Whiskey in the Jar, but it doesn't sound like that to me at all.