Clarence Carter has scrapped his Friday night headlining appearance at Riverfest due to an unspecified emergency, and country musician Andy Griggs will step in as his replacement.

Festival secretary Erin Hern said she received a call from Riverfest’s booking agent, Sound Associates, around 10 a.m. Tuesday, and Griggs was tapped as a replacement in a matter of hours. Details of the emergency sidelining the 73-year-old Carter — known primarily for his 1986 hit “Strokin’” —  were not made available, Hern said.

“We had gotten a lot of good feedback about (Clarence Carter) coming, and we’re disappointed he had to cancel. But, we’re very excited about being able to get Andy Griggs. He’s still pretty up-and-coming,” Hern said.

A native of West Monroe, Griggs was originally considered for the Friday night headlining spot, said Hern, but the Riverfest board ultimately wanted to avoid having two country musicians headline the festival. Country musician Arron Tippin was the first headliner signed on, and will close out the festival with a 10 p.m. performance Saturday.

“We like to have a good variety of musicians, and we didn’t want to have two nights of country, but I think it will work out fine,” Hern said. “There wasn’t much else we could do with such short notice.”

Griggs has released four studio albums since his first, “You Won’t Ever Be Lonely,” in 1999. He scored a No. 2 hit with the title track from the album, and two other singles, “I’ll Go Crazy” and “She’s More,” also reached the top 10. He returned to the charts in 2002, with the single “Tonight I Wanna Be Your Man” from his second album, “Freedom.” His third album, “This I Gotta See,” produced two, top-five songs, “She Thinks She Needs Me” and “If Heaven,” and he released his fourth album, “The Good Life,” in 2008.

Local bands will support both Griggs and Tippin on Friday and Saturday night, beginning at 7. Gates for the Washington Street festival open at 6 both nights. Aside from the scheduling snafu, Riverfest President Terisa Cochran said the festival is coming together as planned.

“Everything is ready to roll, and we’re excited about the upcoming weekend,” she said. “The board of directors has done an awesome job of pulling this together, especially over the past two weeks, and I think we’re going to have a great Riverfest.”

Riverfest is a nonprofit organization with a 12-member volunteer board created after the spring festival was initiated 21 years ago.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com