Live review: Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson at UCLA

Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson wrapped up their five-week tour as a duo, under the fittingly ironic title “Loud & Rich,” with a sterling display of songwriting acumen and musicianship Friday at UCLA, but one that wasn’t particularly loud or likely to make anybody rich.

Not in the filthy lucre sense, anyway. These two folk-rock veterans appeared long ago to have achieved peace in the knowledge that their astute brand of music fills clubs and theaters, not arenas and stadiums. They’ve been pals at least since the days when Thompson produced a couple of Wainwright’s standout albums in the '80s, and used the occasion of their stop at Royce Hall as part of UCLA Live’s eclectic music series to revel in the richness of words skillfully strung together and married to music that carries those words straight to the heart. And, on more than once occasion, to the funny bone.

In fact, many times during the evening Elvis Costello’s famous pronouncement -- “I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused” -- seemed to be play, but it was often hard to tell who was on which side of that equation.

Wainwright, perhaps the most adroit humorist in pop music of the last 40 years, opened the three-hour performance with a set heavy on recent-vintage material, including three from his ambitious double album “High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project.” That set showcases the music of the influential but largely forgotten early country singer from Spray, N.C., a freewheeling, wisecracking, hard-drinking, banjo-playing troubadour for whom Wainwright, also born in North Carolina, obviously holds an affinity.

The solo format left him without the deft instrumental and vocal support he gets on the album from a broad swath of family members (including his kids Rufus, Martha and Lucy) ex-family members and friends. But Thompson jumped in to add color on "If I Lose," bending and sliding steely notes and making his acoustic guitar sound like a dobro.

30 Seconds to Mars and EMI make nice, new album due this fall

EXCLUSIVE

Of all the things that can come betwixt band and record label, the gulf that emerged between Jared Leto’s 30 Seconds to Mars and EMI appeared insurmountable. All that seemed to separate the two sides was $30 million or, as Leto once described it on the band’s website, “30 gazillion.”

But reunions are standard business procedure in the music industry, and the actor-musician said today that 30 Seconds to Mars and EMI have reached an agreement. Expect a new album, tentatively titled “This is War,” on the major this fall.

“It was a long battle, and the time came for the fight to end,” Leto told Pop & Hiss. “We’re certainly not experts at this. This certainly was the first time we had been sued for $30 million, and the first time we ever really had a battle with a business partner. We’re not a group of fighters.  It certainly is not fun being in litigation. I would avoid it at all costs.“

In a well-covered lawsuit filed last fall, EMI’s Virgin Records filed papers against 30 Seconds to Mars, seeking damages in excess of $30 million. It was widely reported that EMI was claiming the band had only delivered three of five albums due to the label. Leto, in turn, responded on the band’s website, and noted the group had been seeking to cease its relationship with the major long before the suit was filed.

 “There was a point after we had sold millions of records around the world, where not only were we never paid a single penny, but we learned that we were millions of dollars in debt,” Leto said. “That brought up a lot of questions for us, and we started to investigate the strange scenario that we were in. That was kind of the beginning of the conflict.”