POP MUSIC REVIEW : Songwriters Schmooze at the Troubadour : ‘In Their Own Words’ was a little awkward but solid in West Hollywood. Touring musicians hit Orange County tonight.

The attraction at the Troubadour on Wednesday was a bunch of singer-songwriters sittin’ around with acoustic guitars--kind of like McCabe’s, but with waitresses and clinking bottles. Hosting the affair was deejay Deirdre O’Donoghue, asking questions of each of the five between songs--like a live radio broadcast, but at $20. And the whole affair was as informal as allowable--like your living room, albeit with a much better guest list.

“In Their Own Words,” as this touring bill is officially known, is an offshoot of a series of shows presented at New York’s Bottom Line in which songwriters of renown shoot the skeet. The five-person lineup that’s on the road for four weeks is slanted toward the country-folk side, with Darden Smith, Don Henry and Rosie Flores, rounded out by veteran tunesmith-of-all-trades Chip Taylor and techie and definite odd man out Midge Ure.

The interview-performance structure was a little awkward, but the general format was closer to what you’d instinctively feel music is supposed to be than just about any other given rock show this week. (The same bill plays tonight at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, but with a different host, still undetermined at press time.)

Ure’s being the biggest draw served as a running joke among the others. He’s admittedly the least likely folkie on board, being someone who uses banks of technology just to write songs, let alone record them. But Ultravox’s new-wave oldie “Vienna” sounded improved, if anything, in the format.

The songwriting strength of Flores’ rockier, more troubadour-ish new “After the Farm” album may have surprised those who know only her erstwhile “stone-country” persona. Smith and Henry proved solid, witty Southern craftsmen.

Mentor figure Taylor was the only one without a singing voice to speak of, but his presence did provide the opportunity for cast sing-alongs of both “Angel of the Morning” and “Wild Thing.”