Don Barnes

Wolf Mountain Weekend 1976 Don Barnes

Publisher Marketing: In 1976 a group of investors in the small, southeastern Oklahoma town of Poteau contacted popular, local radio disk jockey and concert promoter "Diamond" Don Barnes about putting together a large concert to celebrate America's 200th birthday. With only a few weeks to pull it off from scratch, Don took on the task of what would become known as Wolf Mountain Weekend 1976. While working around the clock to pull together what they hoped would be Oklahoma's Woodstock, Don and the investors were slapped with a court injunction to stop the concert. Just hours before Wolf Mountain Weekend 1976 was to begin, it made national headlines when a local judge upheld the constitutional right to assemble as a test of the U. S. Constitution and the show ultimately did go on. Although it was a financial failure, the story of how it came together in such a short time and the constitutional challenge to the right to assemble in celebration of the nation's 200th birthday is an amazing story well worth exploring. National, regional and local acts who performed included Freddy Fender, Jerry Reed, Hoyt Axton (with Nicolette Larson and Crystal Gayle as backup singers), Asleep At The Wheel, Ernest Tubb & The Texas Troubadours, David Allen Coe, Narvel Felts, Bobby Bare, Jody Miller, Don Gibson, Jerry Jaye and the Jay Walkers, Bill Grant, Anthony Armstrong Jones, Don Moore, Cold Sweat, Don Webster, Curt Broyles, and others.