Tex Perkins, Don Walker and Charlie Owen like to take it slow.

Their new album is only their third in 24 years but you wouldn’t know it from their live show. With decades of life on the road between them, they slip into their familiar, melancholy groove and bring to life their cast of drifters and loners lost in the maelstrom of modern life.

Their meditations on middle-aged manhood risk being a bit samey but the show is brimming with character. The trio exude a world-weary charm and their combined decades of experience on the rock’n’roll road is put to fine use here, perfecting a languid sound – backed by pedal steel, drums and stand-up bass – that is more difficult to execute than it looks.

It helps that the likely lads themselves are so obviously enjoying having the band back together again.

Perkins is a compelling frontman and he lends a theatricality to proceedings as he throws himself into the role of each character in turn. He recounts with great relish a sex, drugs and sushi binge (yes, sushi) on A Man In Conflict With Nature, while another protagonist uses “prozac and beer” to stay One Step Ahead Of The Blues, a slow-burning song co-written with guitarist Owen.

By the time we get to Paycheques, they are in full national treasure mode and the crowd are joining in: “On weekends I perform miracles/Turning paycheques into wine.” No one can resist that killer refrain.

Not to be outdone, Walker rises from his keyboard stool to take the lead vocal – actually it’s more like a narration – to do full justice to eponymous rogue in Harry Was A Bad Bugger.

It’s a wonderful tale but, for me, his best moments come on songs from the new album – The Hitcher and Here’s As Good As Anywhere. The new record, You Don’t Know Lonely, challenges us to consider what we know about diving into the depths of the human soul. It can be a bit uncomfortable at times, with its notes of Tom Waits and Nick Cave, but it makes you feel more and more like a weekend snorkeller compared with the deep-sea professionals who make up the cast list.

You could call it blues – and it certainly has more than a hint of country with that pedal steel and occasional dobro – but let’s just call it a magnificent slab of Australiana.

• Tex, Don and Charlie’s Australian tour continues through August and September; You Don’t Know Lonely is out now