He started recording the album in Melbourne with fellow musicians in 2009 and was halfway through mixing when he started to feel ill.

"I got the chills and didn't seem to ever recover from it - and somehow I had an infection that got onto the brain," he said.

O'Connell didn't realise how serious the infection was - until he suddenly collapsed at his home and lost all feeling on his left side. It was a stroke. He was just 30.

His shocked housemates rang 000 and he was taken straight to hospital and went into surgery the next morning.

Now, five years on, he's finally holding a launch for that long-awaited album - described as a mix of jazz, swing and calypso - in his home town of Canberra.

"It's been a long, slow, arduous process of rehabilitation," he said.

O'Connell didn't want the stroke to slow him down. Within a month of surgery, he tried to get back on stage, playing gigs

It was difficult. He needed to keep performing to keep his music at the forefront of people's minds but he couldn't perform at his best.

"I really struggled just getting my guitar back and being a working musician who relies on word of mouth and people to book you, it was a catch-22 situation," he said.

He's been working on Mild Wood Swings, written under the name Good Gosh, ever since. He put the album out in Melbourne, where he now lives, in 2011, but has been refining it since then.

And in the meantime he's gone back to school, earned himself an education diploma and qualified as a teacher.

"For my entire life I've been a working musician, it's a wonderful job, it's a dream job but it will only get you so far. Getting sick made me realise ... I love teaching, I've always taught music privately," he said.

O'Connell cites Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt and "a lot of early stuff" such as Robert Johnson as his jazz influences and jazz musician Andy Baylor as a mentor.

The album launch at The Front Gallery in Lyneham is a "special one-off show to reconnect with friends and people who've come out over the years to support me".

Liam O'Connell performs as Good Gosh on Sunday, October 19, at The Front Gallery and Cafe. 1 Wattle Place, Lyneham, from 6pm.