As a child Tania Kernaghan would go out rabbit trapping with her nanna long before her school day even started.
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She'd don her Hume Public School uniform and head up to Red Light Hill.
Her nanna would set the rabbit traps the night before.
Kernaghan was too squeamish to be much help to her nanna but it was par for the course growing up on the Border during the 1970s.
"It was back in the day when people thought rabbit tasted good!" she said.
"After checking the traps I'd dust off my black school shoes and be dropped off at school and no one even knew I'd been out all morning."
When the country music legend visited the Rabbit Trap Hotel at Albert, 130 kilometres west of Dubbo, last year with fellow singer Jason Owen, one thing stood out immediately.
The giant replica Lanes Ace rabbit trap atop the hotel was the same brand used by Kernaghan's nanna.
Owen's family have long owned the hotel and his dad set up the replica trap.
Having been the runner-up on The X Factor Australia in 2012, Owen was no stranger to rural life.
"Growing up there were 10 to 12 people in the Albert village and I was the only child," he said.
"My family owns the Rabbit Trap Hotel, the service station and three houses; it's pretty much an Owen affair!"
On tour again with Owen, Kernaghan said it was incredible the number of people at their shows who had visited the remote hotel.
Gold Coast-based Kernaghan said she herself felt compelled to visit it last year for the first time.
On their Let Your Love Flow National Tour 2023, Owen and Kernaghan made a massive detour.
"We drove 130 kilometres after our Dubbo show so I could visit the hotel for the first time and have a shandy," Kernaghan said.
Kernaghan and Owen were last on the Border for their Let Your Love Flow national tour in June 2023.
Ahead of kicking off Let Your Love Flow 2024 in Albury on Saturday, May 4, Kernaghan said she loved returning to the Riverina and showing Owen the region that inspired her musical career.
She said it always felt like a homecoming.
"When you pass those blue hills at Holbrook, my inner compass says: 'You're home!'" she said.
"At our shows we tell the stories behind the songs and nine out of 10 are from around the Riverina and growing up in Albury.
"I had a great childhood here; I wouldn't swap it for the world.
"I had my first gig at The Commercial Club and I worked there too; I used to draw the raffle!"
Owen met Kernaghan when he was recording an acoustic John Denver album.
She wanted to make sure he had included Back Home Again but her interest in the project sparked a friendship and a working relationship.
They released Back Home Again together in 2021.
Earlier this year Kernaghan and Owen hosted the prestigious Golden Guitar Awards at Tamworth.
"Growing up listening to Tania's music, it's a really honour to share the stage with her," Owen said.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd host the Golden Guitar Awards with her."
Kernaghan said they simply put themselves forward to host the awards.
"You've got to dream big and shoot for the moon," she said.
"If you miss it you might still hit one of the stars!"
Saturday's show at The Commercial Club Albury starts at 8pm with doors open from 7.30pm.
Special guest star and comedic ventriloquist, Darren Carr, will open the show.
Let Your Love Flow National Tour 2024 winds up at Wollongong on Friday, August 2.
