Signed to famous label Rough Trade and acclaimed by music mags such as the NME, who made the record, 12 Crass Songs, Number 39 in last year's Top 50 Best Albums, The Jeffrey Lewis Band former around the nucleus of rising singer/songwriter/illustrator Jeffrey and his brother Jack.

It's the latest coup for Preston promoters HedMag, who have previously brought artistes like 2007 Mercury nominee Jamie T and New York popsters We Are Scientists to play in tiny Preston venues.

Raised on New York's Lower East Side by loving beatnik parents, Jeffrey Lewis was pushed by the fact that the family had no television in their tenement apartment, to become a comic-book fanatic before even learning how to read.

The resulting lifelong love of writing and drawing his own comic books, both autobiographical and imagined, gained new impetus when he first began writing songs in the winter of 1997.

He began recording homemade cassettes in 1998 and selling them, along with a small comic books at his semi-monthly shows at Sidewalk, home of New York's Antifolk scene.

Lewis's younger brother Jack began playing electric bass at the shows and on the tapes and finally they became an official band in 2002.

When his fellow Sidewalk performers, the Moldy Peaches signed to Rough Trade Records in late 2000, they recommended Jeffrey to label boss Geoff Travis, who subsequently released three full-length Jeffrey Lewis CDs in America, England and Europe.

Since 2002, The Jeffrey Lewis Band has toured the US, UK and Europe sharing bills along the way with Cornershop, the Fall, Beth Orton, Frank Black, Super Furry Animals, Adam Green, Kimya Dawson, British Sea Power, the Fiery Furnaces, Thurston Moore, Devendra Banhart, and many more.

Spin Magazine described his work as: "Folk maverick raids anarchist commune and finds catchy tunes … works wonderfully," while NME said of him: "Jeffrey Lewis's talents appear without end."

HedMag's Ed Monk said: "Jeffrey Lewis has legendary status around the country and deservedly so. I've been inundated with messages querying whether this is THE Jeff Lewis – and it really is – it should be a magnificent night.

"The Mad Ferret is the smallest venue on Jeff's tour schedule so it's an extra special, intimate affair. Anyone within 15 miles of Preston should be attending this gig. No excuses."

* The Jeffrey Lewis Band play the Mad Ferret in Fylde Road, Preston, on Thursday, September 11. Support comes from London's Wave Pictures, and Preston bands, Mr and Mrs and New Zealand Story. Doors open at 8pm and entry is £3.