Carl John, he of the versatile voice and upturned moustache, is the frontman of alt-country band Noahjohn, who specialise in frenzied hoe-downs and psychedelia. His colleagues, having just made an album berating George Bush, are currently taking a break from putting the world to rights with a pedal steel guitar - so, to keep himself busy, John has created Charlemagne, a pared-down alter ego with a personality disorder.
Throughout Charlemagne's self-titled debut album, John assumes various personalities and their emotional traumas. It's like an episode of Quantum Leap with a morally bankrupt ending. He finds frustration in a love affair with a junkie and becomes a murderer with a troubled conscience, the soft, authentic rhythms smothering the misery.
Although Charlemagne is a one-man creation, John is accompanied on stage by a band who appear to have been recruited from a religious cult high in the Appalachian mountains. The drummer, A12, has a tattoo snaking between her cleavage - but she looks like a librarian next to the two backing vocalists. Wearing long polyester dresses of a kind last seen on satellite re-runs of 1970s sitcom Bless This House, Katie Did and Lady Bird add off-kilter harmonies to John's low, gentle voice, while sporadically knitting. Katie Did finishes off the bottom half of a pink bikini; Lady Bird makes a blue scarf.
John is no cowboy himself. Dressed in a light brown suit, he looks as if he has wandered out of an old management training video. However, as he wades through the damaged psyches of his creations, he overcomes this superficial strangeness.
He melts over the summery, west coast-meets-Nashville sound of Holland Daisy, whistling as the retro keyboard hums. Take the slow-dripping country waltz out of In Absentia and you're left with a pop song. Whether he is turning Angel of the Morning from a shrill MOR classic into a desperate plea, or tearing into the Noahjohn-influenced 1960s beat of Pink and Silver, John's new guises never fail to flatter him.
· At the Talbot Hotel, Stoke on Trent, tonight. Box office: 01782 845507. Then touring.
