Alive And Still Picking

Our group which originated in Arkansas and on Paula Records out of Shreveport, La. went on the road fulltime back in 1966-67 and played in South & North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. We appeared with many artists from our era including Roy Head in Shreveport, La., The Newbeats in Arkansas, The Uniques in several locations in Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, Louisiana's Boogie Kings in Monroe, La., and The Electric Flag in Wisconsin. Our home base on the road was Charleston, SC. Our lead guitarist, Jim Woodfield, joined The Uniques (fronted by Joe Stampley) in 1967, who he played and recorded with for many years, and the other members of our group were in numerous bands including later versions of The Chaps, The Sweet Magnolia Band, and Matlock. The later Chaps had several record releases on LeCam (also Soft) Records out of Fort Worth, Texas and Matlock had 2 albums on LeCam - A Salute To Buddy and The Magic Of Matlock. We reunited as a group in SC playing a reunion weekend as a group intact in Santee, SC in 2007 after not playing as a group in 40 years - began recording though we lived in 5 different states and our bass player, who engineered the sessions had his studio in Jacksonville, Fla. where we did all except our final session which was in Little Rock, Ark. after he moved back there. Presently, 2 of us live in Arkansas, I in So. Carolina, 1 in No. Carolina, and 1 in Texas. We all grew up listening to the music as far back as the 50's including the Sun record era, the West Texas Buddy Holly era, then to Ronnie Hawkins and what became The Band in Arkansas, plus hearing a lot of the old Delta blues era material. Back in the day, we played clubs, college frats, high school proms, and concerts and had 2 - single records that bubbled under the top 100 with Paula back in 1966 and got quite a bit of airplay in the Arkansas/Louisiana/ Texas areas. We also played a reunion job in Pine Bluff, Ark. in June 2012 after having not played a job there intact in 45 years and drew a pretty large audience. Our members are Don Bochette - vocals, rhythm guitar & harmonica, Jim Woodfield - vocals, lead and slide guitar & harmonica, Stueart Matlock - vocals and keyboards, Mac Heird - bass guitar, and Doug Fulmer -drums and percussion. We are the same group intact that recorded 2 of the 4 Paula sides back in 1966.