A year ago, Willy Mason, a singer/songwriter still in his teens, was performing at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. "There were about three people in the audience," he recalls. "I was having fun playing but I didn't even expect to sell any CDs."

"But when I came off stage, one of the guys who'd been watching came up and said hello in an English accent. He introduced himself as Zane Lowe and asked me if I'd ever heard of an English station called Radio One.

"I said I thought it sounded vaguely familiar."

Although he didn't realise it at the time, Mason's familiarity with the station was about to increase considerably. The next evening he recorded a live session back in Lowe's hotel room, and, once back in England, Lowe played Mason's song Oxygen at every available opportunity.

Twelve months on, Mason has completed a UK tour with Ben Kweller and is about to return to Britain as a headlining artist, while his debut album Where The Humans Eat has been certified Silver.

And he's still only 20 years old.

What's more, the laid-back Cape Cod native seems to have a knack for meeting the right people. "While I was still at high school I met Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes fame at one of his gigs in Massachusetts," he recalls. ""After the show we had some drinks, got the guitars out, went to a bar I woke up the next morning with an aching head - and on the tour bus in Vermont! At that night's gig, I was waiting to get a ride back to Massachusetts and he just called me up on stage with no warning at all."

By all accounts he stole the show, and as a result not only won a proper support slot with Oberst (who also signed him to his Team Love label) but also the right to share bills with the likes of Roseanne Cash, My Morning Jacket and Evan Dando.

But with the release of his debut album Mason is ready to strike out on his own, introducing the world to his personal take on an American country-folk tradition that dates back to Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.

Not surprisingly, with those influences and the fact that he spends more than a few seconds writing his lyrics, Bob Dylan comparisons have come thick and fast.

"I can see the broad point, in that I play acoustic guitar and there's a strong American roots influence," he says.

"Yet he was creating something drastically new whereas I'd say I'm just reminding people what's already there.

"So I'm flattered by the comparison but I don't think I really live up to it."

His modesty is understandable - for all his obvious talent, Mason's got a long way to go before he can rival one of the most influential figures in 20th Century music. While Dylan's been releasing albums for the best part of half a century, Mason is barley out of his teens - but he's done so much already that some commentators have suggested he may burn himself out.

"I'm only just starting!" Mason laughs in response. "I admit that I got swept up very quickly and sometimes I wasn't quite prepared for it.

"But I now see it as a good thing in that people got to see me as I really am, before I had a chance to construct a real stage persona."

In an age of increasingly manufactured stars, then, it's apparently the real, unpolished Willy Mason that we can see at the Concorde 2 this week.

"Hopefully there'll be a good mood and everyone will have a good time," he predicts of the show. "But one thing's for sure - wherever I'm at, you'll know it."

Starts 7.30pm, tickets cost £7.50 (SOLD OUT). Call 01273 673311.