HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. () — Musicians from across the nation and the area will descend on Hilton Head Island this weekend for the third annual Hilton Head Island Jam Songwriters Festival.

The festival will take places at a half dozen different venues over three days. All the music is free.

John Cranford, a member of the band Cranford Hollow said, “A majority of these folks coming down here from Nashville have a long list of hits and maybe you’ve never heard these folks sing the song before, but you recognize the song from the radio. And that’s just a big honor for us, I think, to host that and then be able to kind of infuse these shows with all of our local crew, both from Savannah and from Hilton Head and a little bit beyond.”

Cranford said bringing in national artists and mixing their music with some local stars offers everyone a chance to enjoy the music and understand the talent right here at home.

“Not all of us have number one Grammy Award winning hits here in the local music scene,” Cranford said. “But I think talent wise, we’re all out there together singing and playing. I think we’d give Nashville a run for their money any day.”

While many of the artists have a country music background, Cranford says this festival is for everyone.

“It’s not just country music, ” Cranford explained. “A lot of the folks coming from Nashville have songs that they’ve written for other artists like Whitney Houston or Elton John, Celine Dion, all these other people that are totally outside the country vein or the umbrella of the country music industry.”

Kyle Wareham of the band Algorythym is one of the other artists on the bill. He remembers the first “Jam” and first brush with greatness.

“I think the first year that we did it, I did one of these songwriters in the rounds at Big Bamboo and at that point I wasn’t really sure what this songwriter festival was,” Wareham said. “And I got there, and this kid is still in the story about this song he wrote, and he plays the song and it’s the song “Cruise”. Enormous country hit. You never would have known till he starts playing it. And it’s like, ‘oh my goodness, this is the guy who wrote that song sitting right here and then boom, you know, having a beer on stage.”

The festival starts Thursday and continues through Saturday night with the big finale at Lowcountry Celebration Park.

“I think there’s over 30 shows and they’re all free,” Cranford said. “So that’s what we love about it. It’s a great chance to entertain and to host these folks from Nashville but also give back a little bit to the community.”

For more information on the festival go to hiltonheadislandjam.com.