Just to clarify, the Michael Smith performing at The Ark on Jan. 6 is not the contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith. This Michael Smith is the veteran musician once called "the greatest songwriter in the English language" by Rolling Stone.

There’s a good reason to address any possible confusion between the two. Prior to an appearance at The Ark a few years back, a local publication printed a picture of the wrong Michael Smith.

“When I got to The Ark,” Smith recalled, “the fellow who ran the place said to me ‘During your first song, some people are going to leave. I don’t know who they are, because we couldn’t bring ourselves to say to every person who bought a ticket ‘You know this isn’t the Christian songwriter, right?’ There are going to be some people who are going to be really disappointed when you walk out on stage.’”

Making the best of an awkward situation, Smith kicked off his set with one of his most famous songs, “The Dutchman.”

“About four people got up and left. I continued my show, presumably with all people who had come to see me,” he recalled, laughing. “So I want to warn you about publishing any photographs!”

Smith, who is about to turn 70, has been crafting songs since he was 15. He’s is one of those artists whose songs you've probably heard without knowing who wrote them.

"The Dutchman," which was popularized by Steve Goodman, has been recorded by John Gorka, Tom Russell, Gamble Rogers, Jerry Jeff Walker, the New Kingston Trio, Liam Clancy, Anne Hills, Suzy Bogguss and others too numerous to mention (check YouTube for a sampling). It’s a poignant ballad that explores the relationship between a woman and a man possibly suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s. Although it may sound grim, it’s a moving story of enduring love.

Among all the cover versions out there, Smith does claim a favorite.

“It’s Liam Clancy’s,” Smith said. “He was a consummate singer and I was honored he went near my song. To me, it was perfect the way he did it. For one thing, he got the melody right and he got the chords right, and that in itself is an accomplishment.

“I didn’t understand before I was a songwriter how varied people’s notions of how a song goes can be. A lot of times I will hear versions of my songs where I’d think ‘Oh my God, I would never use that chord there,' or they have rewritten the lyric in some way subconsciously and it’s awful! So I’m happy when people just get it right. What’s wonderful about Liam’s version was it got real popular there in Ireland and I think it was because he had it right.”

His "Elvis Imitators" has been interpreted by several artists, and Trout Fishing in America (and others) recorded "Dead Egyptian Blues," his hilarious lament about the pharaohs and their vanished riches. (He even claims a song with a local angle: His early work "Panther in Michigan" includes several references to western Washtenaw County.)

Smith has also toured and recorded with Anne Hills, written a musical play about art called "Hello Dali," helped create the recently revived Weavermania show, and made Acoustic Guitar magazine's list of essential singer-songwriters. In sum, he's had a tremendous impact on folk music for four decades now. His most recent CD is "Love Letters on a Fish," recorded live. He has also composed the score for a production of Hans Christian Andersen's “The Snow Queen.”

Asked about the Rolling Stone compliment, he shrugged it off.

“Mr. Dylan might have a few objections,” the Chicago-based Smith laughed, referring of course to folk laureate Bob Dylan. “It’s a nice line, and somebody authentically said it, but in truth all it means is I guess I’m decent at what I do.”

And modest?

“I’m not modest at all,” he chuckled. “I hear a lot of bad songs, and a lot of them come from me. It’s not easy to write a good song, and I’ve written a lot of awful songs in the course of chasing after some good ones.”

Smith said the passing years have given him a new perspective on his craft.

“When I was 15 or 16, whatever I wrote I accepted. I never rewrote. If someone had suggested to me that there was a possibility of rewriting I would have been insulted. It took me till I was about 30 understand about rewriting, and even then I wasn’t really aggressive about it the way I am now. And I also wouldn’t drop songs - if I wrote it, I used it. Now there are a lot of those songs I never would go near performing.”

Smith said that now, more than ever, he prefers to write songs on his own terms rather than those the music industry dictates.

“(When I was starting out) people would ask me questions about the songs, like ‘Where’s the hook?’ At that time I didn’t know how to answer them. I didn’t understand what people were looking for commercially in songs. … What motivated me to write songs was to express myself, and in truth I didn’t really care whether or not they were successful with other people. That was really beside the point. And to this day, it’s really kind of beside the point,” he said.

“I know we have this industry where people put out songs, and there are people why try and write songs that are going to be popular. I don’t know how to do that. … It’s like trying to be popular in high school — you either are or you aren’t. If you try, it makes it worse. That was what my experience was with songwriting. If I tried to write what I thought of as hit songs, those were the most puerile and stupid songs I ever wrote. But when I just write what I feel like writing, now and then something will come out where people will never be able to forget it.”

Smith said the audience at The Ark show should expect to hear some new songs amid some old favorites, since he’s preparing to release a new CD in 2011.

“I like performing (the new tunes) live and I like distilling them down to the essence,” he explained, adding that the as-yet-untitled CD marks another step in his evolving artistic freedom.

“It’s not involved with any kind of record company. What that means it’s going to be pretty much what I make it, and it’s going to be called pretty much what I call it. It will have songs on it I want to have on it, so it will be real personal. That’s the way I want to go from now on. It’s the first time I’ve done a record where nobody had anything to say about it except me,” he said.