KISS Rule: Keep It Simple, Singer

Marc Cohn isn’t the usual troubadour. His recorded work is noted for its rich production values, bathing his introspective songs under delicate layers of sound, without a note out of place. On the road, he is something else entirely.

At the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Wednesday night, the music of the Cleveland-born singer-songwriter was stripped of strings and horns, leaving its human core. Cohn traded precision for warmth, presenting his songs in a way that was disarmingly simple.

Cohn spent his two-hour set switching between piano and acoustic guitar. He was accompanied on stage only by guitarist Shane Fontayne. The result was a sound that surrendered none of Cohn’s tunefulness, which earned him a best new artist Grammy in 1991.

Cohn’s music is deeply influenced by the likes of Jackson Browne and Van Morrison, two singers whose best work taps into genuine emotion without falling into self-absorption. Likewise, Cohn’s work is somehow both melancholy and optimistic, even if his records come off as more formal than that of either Browne or Morrison. His blood still runs hotter than that of Billy Joel.

Cohn’s show, the first of two sold-out nights, returned him to where he began, about 10 months ago, his tour in support of his new “Burning the Daze” album.

The end of 1998 also marked the end of that, he told the Coach House crowd, adding, “Unless something very strange happens [in the] morning: ‘Marc, we want you to play the Senate hearings.’ ”

It was typical of Cohn’s easy humor between songs. He joked about the first time he heard his hit single “Walking in Memphis” on the car radio (immediately after Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” on the air), and he brought the house lights up slightly to encourage fans to join him in singing it. The song was dropped into the middle of his set, as if it were no more important than any other song that night.

Cohn’s newer work cuts deeper. His “Already Home” was a driving acoustic ballad, accented by delicate flourishes on Fontayne’s electric guitar. On “Ellis Island,” Cohn explored themes of displacement.

For “Olana,” he brought out a “special guest”--a drum machine.

“I apologize to those of you who are enjoying the organic nature of my set,” he said.

“Olana” is based on the moving story of 19th century painter Frederick Church, who was forced to give up his art when stricken with arthritis, putting his energies instead toward building a house for his family.

“It’s been a really great realization these last couple of years to take nothing for granted,” the singer said.

Cohn spent most of the night behind a grand piano, sipping bottled water, his shirt sleeves rolled to the elbows.

The crowd was also treated to a quintet of Los Angeles session singers for Cohn’s rocked-up, comical strut of “Paper Walls,” which lent the evening a warm gospel flavor.