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The shared bill of Richard Thompson and Loudon Wainwright III is a match made in heaven for a certain discriminating type of music fan. Both are songwriter’s songwriters and gifted musicians. If there’s a better guitarist alive than Thompson, I’ve not yet heard him.

He launched his career in the 1960s with the legendary British electric-folk group Fairport Convention and subsequently recorded a celebrated string of albums with Linda Thompson (his former wife) and on his own. The latest, “Sweet Warrior,” came out in 2007. A career-spanning box set “Walking on a Wire: 1968-2009” was released in August. He is presently writing songs for his next album.

I caught up with Thompson by phone at his home in Southern California, where he was preparing to tour with Wainwright. The two are billing themselves, with tongue in cheek, as “Loud and Rich.”

When I heard that you and Loudon were going out as Loud and Rich, I assumed you were playing off the name of the duo Big & Rich.

Oh, I don’t know them.

You don’t know them?! That makes it even better, really. They’re a hugely popular country duo that does hard-rocking, beer-swigging songs like “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy).”

Hey, that’s us! We’re right in there! (laughs) We were definitely first. There’s printed evidence. (Indeed, a photo of the duo on the back of Wainwright’s 1985 album “I’m Alright” is captioned “Loud and Rich.”)

How long have you known Wainwright, and how’d you wind up touring with him?

I met Loudon in the 1970s, just through the folk scene. We became friends in the late ’70s and did some studio stuff together. We’ve been friends a long time. We’ve actually toured Australia and Japan together a couple of times. It just seemed like a logical extension to do it in the U.S. at some point, so here we are.

What do you like about his songwriting? Is he a kindred spirit?

Yeah, I think so. He’s kind of unique, as well. There are not many confessional songwriters who can get away with it. I’d put Joni Mitchell in that bracket. Usually with confessional songwriters you want to say, “Please stop. This is more information than I need about your whiny, pathetic life.” But to be that kind of songwriter requires scrupulous honesty with yourself, and Loudon is one of the few people who can do that. He really is absolutely on it, and because of that, he writes very moving, beautiful songs, as well as being humorous at times.

In terms of your own songwriting, you still write very acutely and often about British culture, yet your home base for the past 15 years has been Southern California. Does that distance allow you to see your homeland more clearly?

I think it probably does. I’m not moved to write about Southern California. It’s kind of a bland place. But I think the blandness is an advantage if you’re a writer because it doesn’t really impose on you. You can work on your interior landscape, which for me (laughs) is a lot bleaker. It’s bleaker and wetter and more windswept, and that’s where my songs tend to be placed.

Contact Parke Puterbaugh at parkeputerbaugh@earthlink.net.