Loudon Wainwright sings as he performs with Richard Thompson during the “Loud & Rich” concert at the Michigan Theater on Tuesday night.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson may not be household names — as their double-billed “Loud and Rich” tour might suggest — but for fans of smart songwriting and (particularly in Thompson’s case) first-rate guitar playing, they rank among the top of their class.

Tuesday’s performance was no exception, with the singer-songwriters trading 75-minute sets and even joining forces for a handful of numbers that, for the most part, exceeded the sum of its already considerable parts.

Wainwright started the evening with a smart set of songs that leaned heavily on his current fascination with the nation’s crumbling economy.

“I’m writing all these songs about the ‘New Depression’ so I can cash in,” he deadpanned. “I’m no fool.”

That’s no lie. Almost criminally overlooked as a songwriter, Wainwright found both humor and tragedy in these songs, admitting in one song that all he could do for the economy was sing about it. Ironically for such a cynical voice, he also found hope, claiming in “Fear Itself” that the current bleakness doesn’t signal the end, but rather the middle of a dark night.

Like the best songwriters, Wainwright sings from his experiences, and songs like “Half Fist,” about his grandfather and namesake, and “White Winos,” about his mother’s fondness for chardonnay, were performed with a nostalgia that never crossed the line into sentimentality.

Loudon Wainwright III performs “Half Fist” in London:

Thompson joined Wainwright at the end of his set for a searing reading of Charlie Poole’s “The Deal,” in which Thompson’s lead guitar propelled the song and suggested the fretboard pyrotechnics that were to follow during his set.

Running through a set that included newer songs and some of his classics, Thompson took a less personal, though no-less dark, stroll through misery and heartache. Songs like “I Feel So Good” and “Cold Kisses” were sung from an outsider’s perspective, while standards like “1952 Black Lightning” and “A Brother Slips Away” were bleak songs of death and heartache.

But unlike Wainwright, who seemed to inhabit the melancholy of his tunes, Thompson is a more upbeat performer, telling jokes between songs and livening up during his frequent — and nearly always stunning — guitar solos.

As a guitarist, Thompson is almost without peer. Even on his most familiar songs, he found interesting things to do with his solos, elongating his already intricate runs and inverting his finger-picked rhythms. Watching — and hearing — him play guitar was breathtaking.

After Wainwright rejoined Thompson for an encore of the latter’s unspeakably bleak “Down Where the Drunkards Roll,” the pair closed the show with a lively reading of the Coasters’ “Smokey Joe’s Café.”

It was as if the two artists knew they needed to lift the mood before sending their audience out into the cold, rainy night.

Will Stewart is a free-lance writer for AnnArbor.com.