On the road to musical success there are two routes a musician can take.

One involves recording an album and launching an aggressive promotional campaign with the hope of landing radio play and a possible record deal.

Then there are performers like Australia’s Kim Churchill, who has toured hard in order to get his music heard.

For Churchill, 21, the touring paid off. He’s in the midst of his sixth Canadian tour since 2009. On Thursday, he will perform his second show at The Blue Grotto in three years. The performance begins at 9 p.m. and tickets are available at the door.

The tour celebrates the launch of Churchill’s second album, Detail of Distance, which continues his trademark blend of guitar and harmonica he describes as psychedelic folk.

“There’s lots of different guitar lines, amplifiers, bass. There’s lots of effects on the harmonica,” he said during a phone interview from Lynn Valley. “That takes it into this trancey, experimental, almost jam-band sound.”

Churchill first picked up a guitar when he was a six-year-old boy in Merimbula, a small coastal town in Western Australia, and was immediately hooked, he said.

Classically trained by the time he graduated high school in 2009, and with busking and wedding gigs under his belt, he bought a camper van and hit the road intent on making a living with his music.

“All of a sudden, I needed money to survive. I needed to have money for the next load of fuel,” he said. “It became all encompassing really.”

The motivation worked, and he played venues all over Australia before the opportunity came up to perform in Japan.  That led to shows in Canada and he’s been touring non-stop ever since.

“To be able to play music and fulfil those desires to see the world all in one is kind of a dream come true,” he said.

And Churchill intends to keep the dream alive as long as he can, he said. His music can be found on iTunes and in record stores everywhere.