Festival Coordinator Rod Cork said Grainger had informed organisers that he was unable to make the trip to Australia due to an illness in his family.

"We were disappointed that Richard couldn't make it, but absolutely thrilled that Fred Smith is coming back to Kiama," Mr Cork said.

"And having Fred Smith and Neil Murray on the same program means we can lay claim to having two of Australia's finest and most thoughtful sing-songwriters at our festival."

Back in 2017 Smith was promoting his latest album, Great, which was about the country that Donald Trump promised to "make great again" during his successful campaign to become US President.

"It will be interesting to see what Fred makes of developments in Trump's American since the last time he was here," Mr Cork said.

Smith has lived in the US and is fascinated with the country and its politics.

"Great is a collection of American ballads, story songs - some comic, some less so - offering my observations and accounts of American history, politics and pathologies," Smith said.

"Like most of us, I can't take my eyes off political developments in America. So there is a fair bit of piss-taking on the album, befitting the subject matter. But it also reflects my reverence and fascination for American history, literature and music."

Smith is best known for his highly acclaimed album Dust of Uruzgan, released in 2010, and the book by the same name published in 2017. Both album and book chronicle his experiences as an Australian diplomat attached to the Australian Defence Force in Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan.

His time there was chronicled on the ABC TV's Australian Story program.

He will be performing three shows at Folk By The Sea - Friday, September 27 at 7.30pm, Saturday, September 28 at 12.15pm and Sunday, September 29 at 12.45pm.