The musicians on stage sing Home on the Range, echoed softly and plaintively by the crowd of dozens as the sun sets on Friday afternoon.

It’s the Galway Bay in Ocean Shores, and for once, there’s no mention of dear, beloved Ireland — this weekend is the ABC3 fest, the Appalachian, Bluegrass, Cowboy, Country and Cavalry Festival.

The festival, now in its sixth iteration, is bouncing back post-COVID, as many longtime performers return to the stage with the music of the East and West, taking place in both Hoquiam and Ocean Shores.

Hank Cramer sings at the ABC3 Festival in Ocean Shores on Friday. (Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World)

“We were playing the Irish music festival for a few years,” said Ron E. Banner, lead singer for the Shivering Denizens, after a set at the 8th Street Ale House in Hoquiam on Friday night. “We went over well there. He started doing the ABC festival, and we were doing it from the beginning.”

Many performers, such Hank Cramer, are well known to guests at the Galway. Others, such as Dysfunction Junction, are new to the scene.

“I used to live in Missoula and there was a five way intersection named malfunction junction,” said Pat Ferris, a member of Dysfunction Junction, explaining the name. “Liam (Galway Bay owner) reached out to me and asked if we wanted to play.”

Dylan Vance of St James’s Gate performs at the ABC3 Festival in Ocean Shores on Friday. (Clayton Franke / The Daily World)

A smaller scale event and more intimate than the Galway’s Celtic Feis that dominates Ocean Shores each year, six artists or groups performed at the ABC3 Festival this year. Picking their songs can be an interesting exercise.

“We’re not really wedded to anything. I don’t have the attention to play one genre,” said Griff Bear of St. James’s Gate, a longtime participant in the festival. “It’s not only nice but really necessary for me to play with people who can cross genres.”

Several bands perform together at the ABC3 Festival in Ocean Shores on Friday. (Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World)

People arrive in this spread of genres in a variety of ways, from hearing other bands play to traveling through where a lot of the music originated, be it out West, down South, or out in Appalachia, the part of the country spread through West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee that was heavily settled by the Scots-Irish in their arrival to the Americas.

“My conclusion this summer is that I feel more at home in West Virginia than anywhere else I’ve been,” Bear said.

The festival is also a good time for a band to move its internal focus as they look forward, said Dylan Vance of St. James’s.

Clayton Franke / The Daily World Dysfunction Junction performs at the ABC3 Festival in Ocean Shores on Friday.

“We’re going to record a country album,” Vance said. “This is a chance to shift our attention to that.”

Others ended up in ABC’s churn of genres through hearing it in the wild, like Dysfunction Junction, which crystallized at a Grateful Dead show.

“A lot of people get into bluegrass through ‘Old and in the Way,’” Ferris said.

Artists Friday were excited for the festival, which ran through Sunday, wrapping up at the Ale House.

“This is what we love doing,” Banner said. “Why do anything else?”

Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World The Shivering Denizens performs at the ABC3 Festival in Hoquiam on Friday.

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.