As John T. Davis wrote yesterday, the collected works of Guy Clark, Joe Ely, John Hiatt, and Lyle Lovett come about as close to a modern American songbook as any other combination of songwriters. Last night, the four long-time friends closed out a brief stand at the Paramount Theatre with a two-and-a-half-hour performance that was part songswap, part standup, and wholly certain to remain a lifelong memory.

Though hobbled by a broken leg (jokingly mythologized as an "old songwriting injury"), Clark started with "The Cape" and soared on from there with fan favorites like "Out in the Parking Lot," "Magdalene," and "Dublin Blues," plus the new "Hollywood" (see session video below). The 66-year-old's fingers may not glide across the frets quite like they used to, but the craftsman's touch never fades away. For my money, there's few things better in live music than hearing him play "The Randall Knife."

Sitting to Clark's right, Joe Ely opened with "Up on the Ridge" but would later push the tempo more than any of his stagemates, reaching a positively fevered pitch on "Me and Billy the Kid" and "For Your Love." John Hiatt's catalog is the least familiar to me, but even then it's near impossible to not recognize career-sustaining hits like "Have a Little Faith in Me" and "Thing Called Love."

If Guy Clark was the elder statesman, Lyle Lovett played master of ceremonies. Sitting stage right, Lovett relished the opportunity to gaze across the slightly arced lineup and offer good-natured verbal jabs between songs. The banter wound down as the night wore on, but not before he ended a lengthy effort to get Hiatt to explain the motivation behind one of his songs by assuming a therapist's pose: "I think we're making good progress here."

Of course Lovett was there more for the music than the mischief. He drew largely upon his most recent material, like the nostalgic "South Texas Girl" and the elegiac "Don't Cry a Tear." But there was levity in his selections, too, especially with the double-entendre driven "Keep It in Your Pantry."

When called back for an encore, Ely invited Shawn Colvin to join the group on stage. She joked about disturbing the "sea of testosterone" before beginning an impromptu rendition of Ry Cooder's "Borderline." Hiatt, Cooder's former tour partner, helped fill brief lyrical gaps and carried the bridge's chord progression on guitar.

The intimate Paramount proved a perfect setting. Even with our upper balcony seats, the acoustics were crisp and the sightlines near flawless.

With Guy Clark's recent cancer battle and the whole group's advancing age (the youngest, Lovett, turned 50 last year), there's no telling how many more opportunities we'll get to see these Americana standard-bearers share the stage. After all, it took more than 15 years to bring the group's in-the-round format to Austin.

Hopefully they'll be back again someday soon. And if so, you can count me in for both nights. This is an event not to be missed.