Willy Mason

Willy Mason is living proof that even if there are only four people in the audience, it's a good idea to give it your all. At the South by Southwest music conference in Austin, Texas, last March, Mason, a Martha's Vineyard native, was playing a late-afternoon showcase in a far-flung club to a group of people he could count on his hand. Wisely, he sang his heart out anyway.

"When I got offstage the four guys walked up to me and they all had British accents," says Mason, 20. "They said they were DJs on BBC Radio 1, and they wanted me to come over there and do a show, which I did. And that's when things started happening."

Mason toured England last summer and was snapped up by Virgin Records UK, which released his debut CD, "Where the Humans Eat," overseas. Stateside, the album was released by Team Love, the new boutique label run by indie guru Conor Oberst, a.k.a. Bright Eyes -- whom Mason met at a New Hampshire Bright Eyes show. Oberst took one listen to Mason's songs and hustled him into the Bright Eyes tour van as his impromptu opening act.

Mason is now a nomad, dividing his time between his parents' basement in West Tisbury, Oberst's apartment in New York, and his own van, which is home when he's out on the road opening for Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, and Roseanne Cash. But Mason remains a family man. At a recent Paradise gig opening for Ray LaMontagne, Mom sang backup vocals on her prodigal son's rootsy folk songs. Brother Sam, 16, frequently mans the drums.

"There were always guitars around the house," says Mason, who first picked one up at the age of 10. "Watching my parents writing and hearing them sing their songs, playing with them at these massive musical parties they throw taught me that music is more than performance. It's community."

LENGTH OF TIME PERFORMING: He wrote his first song, on cello, when he was 8. MUSICAL INFLUENCES: "First and foremost my mom and dad [folk singers Jemima James and Michael Mason]. Also Merle Travis, Jimmy Rogers, Bessie Smith, and John Lee Hooker." WHO HE THINKS HE SOUNDS LIKE: "As far as ideas and stuff, Hymie's Basement. They've just put out one album, and I wouldn't have heard of it if it weren't for my younger brother Sam." HE'LL KNOW HE'S MADE IT WHEN: "I don't have to rely on anyone to put food on the table, and I've created a platform that my friends and family can spring from." QUIRKY FACT ABOUT HIM: Mason wrote his first single, "Oxygen," for his high school music-theory class. JOAN ANDERMAN