Bringing a blues and roots sound, foot percussion, harmonicas, tambourines, and a blend of acoustic and electric originals - just not all of the 16 guitars he's collected - Biilmann said the hall was an under-utilised yet fantastic place to perform.

"Playing sort of a street back from where I grew up is pretty cool," he said.

From being in the same class in high school with Kim Churchill, to the likes of Petrol Bomb who won the Australasia Hotel's Battle of the Bands in 2023, Biilmann said the area was very nurturing of his music since it was ripe with a bed of musical talents.

"I wrote and released my first record when I was 19, when I was still down home, which wasn't very good but it was a start. You've got to start somewhere.

"It's a very rich talent pool where we grew up, it's always the gift that keeps on giving," he said.

Since then, he has had a decade of national and international touring, shared the stage with the likes of John Farnham, Tash Sultana, The Cat Empire, and Ian Moss, become sponsored by Maton guitars, audiences have streamed his music hundreds of thousands of times, and he's produced four albums.

"I'm very story-driven, so l've always got a stockpile of guitar ideas that just sit there until I marry them up with a vocal thing, so that's how I usually write songs, the guitar stuff comes first and the vocals come second," Biilmann said.

"Depends on the mood, if it's happy, sad, sinister, there's usually a guitar idea sitting there waiting for it.

"If I first write something I'll usually record it on notes, but if it's something I think is good, I won't forget it.

"I'll hold on to it until the vocal idea comes, and sometimes those ideas take years, but there's so much in the guitar stockpile to keep you going.

"This year I want to write as much as I can because it's a muscle you need to keep strengthening."

Sarah Lingard-Sinclair, a young, talented, singer-songwriter from the Bega Valley, will be opening the evening, performing originals she described as alternative pop, and inspired by ideas which often blossom into her thoughts, often through "gibberish" writing.

Biilmann shared how the music industry was greatly affected during COVID, limiting tours and performances, but said the damage hadn't been reversed, and ticket sales were still down.

"People have less disposable income for one, and two, you see the phenomenon of Taylor Swift and stuff like that.

"I think what people will do is they'll spend all their yearly budget on live music on one big extravagant weekend," he said.

"Then when it comes to paying $20 or $30 on a gig elsewhere, they think, 'Nah, I went to Taylor Swift the other day, I don't need to see all that'.

"It's a really hard way up at the moment, and I don't know what the answer is."

He hoped artists starting up now don't get discouraged and give up their music a lot sooner than they should because they put a lot of work in and don't see the rewards one should do.

General admission tickets are $27.78, to purchase or learn more, click here