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Charlemagne is a man, not a band. Charlemagne is Carl Johns. Johns is also the leader and songwriter of the psychedelic country-rock band Noahjohn. With Noahjohn on hiatus, Johns continues to assert his prolific musical creativity with the freedom provided by Charlemagne. The songs on Johns' self-titled Charlemagne were written as character sketches. Sometimes combining several characters into one voice. Johns sings from the first, second, and third person, and his voice changes just as much, providing each track its own aural fingerprint, with blissful harmonies to boot. For the most part, Charlemagne is pop, sometimes borrowing elements of upbeat folk, roots-rock and droning psychedelia. Nevertheless, some say the songs have a certain sensibility and structure that shares a common lineage with country. Pop songs written like country songs? While Noahjohn simply captured its live sound on disc, Charlemagne is a studio album. Coming off of a stint of touring with Noahjohn in February 2003, Johns returned home and buried himself inside Science of Sound, a Madison home studio, for a long, cold Wisconsin winter of recording. The album began with an acoustic guitar and a 1970s drum machine (Multivox Rhythm Ace FR-3). Charlemagne is a true solo album, as Johns wrote and recorded everything, aside from the lyrics to the album's final track, which were taken from Tenaya Darlington's poetry book, Madame Deluxe (2001 Coffeehouse Press). Charlemagne was mixed at Butch Vig's Smart Studios in July. For the past five years, Johns has focused on Noahjohn, garnering success and critical acclaim through Noahjohn's unique lyrical self-reflection of life in the Midwest and the unconventional combination of bittersweet twang, psych rock, and backwoods weirdness. Noahjohn has released three full-length albums in addition to providing the backing band for Eugene Chadborne's February 2004 release Country Protest Anew (Killdeer). The releases include Tadpoles (1999), Had a Burning (2001), and Water Hymns (2002). Noahjohn has collected praise not only in the United States, but also in England, where Mojo named Tadpoles Best of Americana in 2000. The band was featured at the Beyond Nashville Festival in London in 2001 and toured the UK with Giant Sand. Noahjohn is carried in Europe by London-based Loose Recordings. Check out the artist's website: http://www.winterlander.com Track List: 1. Behold! Charlemagne 2. Prisoner Of 3. Two Steps Ahead 4. In Abstentia 5. Dawn Upon 6. August Evenings 7. Go Native 8. Holland Daisy 9. How Could He? 10. Champagne Chin 11. Portrait With No Shortage of History Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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