Yours and Owls, Friday, May 17

University of Wollongong, Friday, May 24

After winning Triple J's Unearthed competition in 2009, singer-songwriter Leroy Lee had to learn very quickly how to perform in large venues, going on tour soon after as a support for Missy Higgins.

"The first three shows were at the Enmore in Sydney, which was very different to the small bars and cafes I had been playing in," Lee says.

"By the third Enmore show I thought, 'All right, I've got the hang of this now. I know how to play to an audience where there are so many people you can't think about individuals'.

"One of the great things that happened at the first Enmore show, I was playing and opened one eye for a second and saw a girl a few rows back mouthing the lyrics.

"I thought, 'Hey, how does she know this song?' Up until that moment I was pretty much the only one who knew my lyrics.

"I don't think anyone gets used to that - I hope not."

Lee describes his music as "somewhere between English folk and Americana". There's a lot of blues in his guitar playing while his poetic lyrics owe more to the English singers.

"It's pretty much those two things," he says.

"On one side there's Bert Jansch, Nick Drake and the English folk stuff and on the other side, the Americana, you've got Mississippi John Hurt and Big Bill Broonzy and all those guys."

Lee is mostly self-taught as a guitarist, although some lessons in blues guitar had a big influence on his playing style.

"I never had a lot of formal training musically," he says. "When I first started learning guitar I had, like, two chords and that's just how I learnt to play, making it up for myself and learning other people's songs.

"I did have some lessons with a fantastic delta blues guitarist called John Morris.

"That was really important because a lot of that stuff you hear it and it doesn't really make sense. It's kind of an illusion, it sounds like you're playing two guitars because you are playing a bass line and a melody at the same time."

Lee is also an accomplished banjo player, and toured the US last year with Folk Uke - the band of Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson, the daughters respectively of folk legend Arlo Guthrie and country star Willie Nelson.

On that tour Lee learnt another lesson on tailoring yourself to the venue.

"Country artists over there tend to dress up a lot, they wear a lot of shiny clothes. Amy explained that it's so you know they're a star."