In 1975 John Parker met Roy Buffaloe and they started to put together a band. John and Roy had both attended Messick High School in Memphis that was a mecca for musicians. They both had been musicians in a few local bands in and around Memphis. Roy was a lead guitar player that was influenced by The Allman Brothers, Joe Walsh and Carlos Santana among others. John Parker was a lead singer and rhythm guitar player who was influenced by Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash and The Bee Gees.

Soon after Roy and John started the band, they added Annette Caudell, a local singer and keyboard player. Not long after she joined the band a romance erupted, and Annette and Roy married. They needed a bass player and drummer so John reached out to his old friend, Jack Bauder, a bass player who he had played with in several bands, going all the way back to high school and also reached out to Leslie Van Story who had played gigs with John and Jack. Leslie grew up with music as his father, Marcus Van Story, was a bass player at Sun Recording Studio. Leslie was not only a skilled drummer, who had done drum tracks at Sun Studios when he was a teenager but was also a great vocalist

The band was now complete with John, Annette and Leslie as lead singers and with Jack and Roy doing back-up singing. As a cover band they covered The Bee Gees tunes during the disco craze and many of the Eagles tunes that most bands could not cover. Early on when they were trying to decide on a name for the band, John said the only correct name should be “Buffalo”. Buffalo was born!

After playing gigs for 12 years the band started focusing on writing and recording their originals. Roy started A and R productions, a local recording studio. John, Roy and Annette collaborated on many of their songs.