Willie Nelson said touring ruined his life. And while the image of a tax-evading troubadour may have fitted his sound and ideals, the long days, weeks, months and years on the road meant he had almost as many failed marriages as great albums.

But for another American drifter besotted by the highway – who cites both Nelson and Hank Williams as his influences – life does not get much better than heading to undiscovered lands armed with only a story to tell.

“I feel like I’m getting away with murder,” says Owen Ashworth, aka Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, who travels with a Casio keyboard rather than the beatniks’ traditional weapon of choice, the acoustic guitar.

“All the international travel in my life has been the result of going to play music. It’s great to show up in a strange country where people are excited to see you and want to show you around. This is nothing like real life. I feel so lucky.”

Ashworth is speaking to me from Istanbul, where the traditional technology of music distribution is still developing. Casiotone has no records available in Turkey and has had no promotion in the country, but the Turkish people have still discovered a passion for Ashworth’s music – through illegal downloading.

“People were familiar with my stuff which was really amazing,” says Owen. “I have an abstract connection to people downloading MP3s. It seems really pure, based on nothing other than the music itself, with no other product being exchanged.

“That is enough, and that alone excites people to want to come to a show. It’s beautiful.”

Casiotone play Brighton’s Freebutt as part of a five-date UK tour. An artist who hates feeling like a tourist, Ashworth will be travelling around the country by National Express.

Ashworth says he will always take a train or a bus when he goes on tour to get a true sense of the place he is travelling to. That visceral sense of place eventually finds its way into his lo-fi, DIY records.

“A lot of my songs are based on locations and places I have been,” he says. “The place is important and the stories of the lyrics are an absolutely essential part of songwriting.

“On my last record there is a song called Tom Justice, The Choir Boy Robber, about a guy I worked with in a cinema. It turns out all the time I worked with him he was going away every weekend to rob banks. He managed 26 from Illinois to California.

“Now that’s the sort of thing which is a great story.”

* Doors 7.30pm, tickets £7, Call 01273 603974