When the John Mann concert slated for the Harrison Festival Concert Series was postponed earlier this month, it didn’t take long for a new act to step up to the plate.

The festival society’s artistic director, Phyllis Stenson, happened to be in P.E.I. and made contact with old friends Richard Wood and Gordon Belsher, who just happened to be planning a western tour.

They were able to fit in a Harrison show, and will be coming here on Friday, October 30.

The Charlottetown Guardian has raved that Wood and Belsher “make some wicked music together, the kind that keeps the kitchen party goin’ all night”. They last appeared in Harrison for a sold out show at the 1999 Harrison Festival. Praised for his Celtic step dancing, almost as much as for his fiddle playing, Richard also assured organizers that he would be doing a bit more dancing this time out.

Critics have said that Richard Wood plays with “perfect precision, playfulness and power!”

For more than two decades he has impressed audiences all across Canada, as well as in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Highlights include TV guest appearances with Shania Twain on “David Letterman” and “Good Morning America”, Carnegie Hall with Irish legends The Chieftains, CBC’s Canada Day on Parliament Hill, “Rita MacNeil and Friends”, and with Jean Butler of “Riverdance” on “Celtic Electric”.

Richard has five previous CD recordings and has won three East Coast Music Awards. MacLean’s magazine named him one of the Top 100 Canadians to watch in the 21st Century.

As accompanist and featured vocalist with Richard Wood and Island fiddling jewel Cynthia MacLeod, Gordon Belsher has toured extensively across Canada, the U.S., the UK and Europe, and performed as part of the cultural delegation for Team Canada in Tokyo, Japan in 1999. At the 2006 Charlottetown Festival, he was featured in “Celtic Blaze” with fiddling and step-dancing jaw dropper Stephanie Cadman.

Gordon was a nominee at Canada’s 2008 East Coast Music Awards for his solo CD, “Call up all the Neighbours”. In 2003 his previous CD, “Reel in the Flickering Light” was also nominated. Gordon also operates Guernsey Cove Parlour Productions recording studio out of his home in Prince Edward Island.

Watch for more details of the John Mann concert in the new year.

For tickets and information regarding the Wood and Belsher show, call the Harrison festival office at 604-796-3664.