POP : Musicians Use Gift of Gab in ‘Their Own Words’

If you’re from the “shaddup and play” school of concert-going, Friday night’s bill at the Coach House probably isn’t for you.

Dubbed “In Their Own Words: A Bunch of Songwriters Sittin’ Around Singing,” the program also involves a good deal of sittin’ around gabbing. The concept, originated at the Bottom Line nightclub in New York City, puts a semicircle of accomplished songwriters on stage with a host and sets them loose swapping not only songs, but stories, comments, recollections and insights intended to open up the artists’ lives, times and musical methods to public inspection.

The Bottom Line has staged 17 “In Their Own Words” nights over the past two years, and now the concept has turned into a traveling show, with plans for several such tours each year. The first caravan is a varied lot, with Midge Ure, Chip Taylor, Darden Smith, Rosie Flores and Don Henry providing the songs and gab.

Ure, the best-established name on the bill in terms of his profile as a performer, is the Scottish rock singer known for fronting the band Ultravox and for helping Bob Geldof launch the “Band Aid” Ethiopian relief project that shamed American popsters into responding with “We Are the World.”

Ure is one of the least likely figures to turn up playing solo versions of his songs: Both in Ultravox, and on his three solo albums (including the current “Pure”), his trademark has been sweeping, highly synthesized anthem-extravaganzas dealing earnestly with such big themes as God, romance and world peace.

Taylor is probably the most obscure figure on the bill, but he is also the only songwriter in the bunch who has penned a couple of songs that everybody knows: the ‘60s-vintage “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” Taylor (his real name is James Wesley Voight, and he’s the younger brother of actor John Voight) recorded a series of albums during the 1970s. This tour marks his return to performing after a decade-long absence.

Don Henry also had a part in a big hit, co-writing Kathy Mattea’s sentimental ballad “Where’ve You Been?” On his recent debut album, “Wild in the Backyard,” the Nashville-based Henry shows two sides: as a wry commentator, a la Randy Newman, and as a heart-tugging balladeer on songs like “Beautiful Fool,” a homage to Martin Luther King that comes off like a politicized heir to Don McLean’s “Vincent.”

Flores has been part of Southern California’s rocking-country scene since the late-’70s, first in a couple of bands, Rosie and the Screamers and the Screamin’ Sirens. She released her solo debut album in 1987, and is back with a new record, “After the Farm,” that includes songwriting collaborations between Flores and a couple of sharp Texas troubadours, Guy Clark and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.

Smith, who hails from Austin, Tex., comes out of the classic singer-songwriter tradition. His 1990 album, “Trouble No More,” used strains of pop, folk, country and heartland rock to carry tales that portray life as a hard, but endurable journey. Besides three albums of his own, Smith collaborated on a 1989 duo release with the British rocker Boo Hewerdine.

Reports from the road indicate that the five, who were strangers when they jumped into a touring van together last month, have established an easy camaraderie that is manifest on stage in loose banter and collaborative performances. Word is that when not sittin’ around singing together, various combinations of the five have been sittin’ around writing songs together.

What: “In Their Own Words,” with Midge Ure, Chip Taylor, Darden Smith, Rosie Flores and Don Henry.

When: Friday, April 17, at 8 p.m.

Where: The Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano.

Whereabouts: San Diego Freeway to the San Juan Creek Road exit. Left onto Camino Capistrano. The Coach House is in the Esplanade Plaza.

Wherewithal: $18.50.

Where to Call: (714) 496-8930.