"Your Favorites"

The Early Years  (Jeanne)

Jeanne (Lavoie) West began performing at the tender age of 11.
She grew up listening to the music of the '40's and 50's that her dad used to sing to her and instilled in her heart.

In her early teen years, she began performing on a regular basis with her brother, Jimmy, in his band, The Silvertones, later The Paragons at Teen Clubs and Navy Base Clubs.
In her teenage years she began listening to the music of the 60's and loving it!

 

Jim Owens, a young television producer at WCIV, Channel 4 in Charleston, South Carolina created a local music variety series called The Village Square in 1964.
The show premiered, with guest bands and performers.

Jim Owens is the creator and producer of the TV series, "Crook and Chase" and many other productions in Nashville.    Lorianne Crook is also Jim's wife.

Jeanne Lavoie, then 15 years old, sang with her brothers band, The Paragons, on the show.

After Jim Owens heard her sing, she was hired by him to be the Co-host of the TV show.
With the show's success, Jim decided to build the show around the band, The Villagers.

 

Wayne West was then hired to play lead guitar for the group.

 

The Early Years  (Wayne)

Wayne West began his life in music in 1957 at the age of 10, listening to Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson and learning how to play rock guitar by learning songs by the instrumental group, The Ventures.

He started playing with bands in the Charleston, South Carolina area by the age of 13 at Teen Clubs and Air Force and Navy Basses and Clubs.

Some of the Bands he played with:
The Skyliners  (1960 - 1962)  Charleston, SC
The Lancers  (1962 - 1964)  Charleston, SC
The Dardanelles (1964 - 1965) Charleston, SC
The Villagers  (1965 - 1968)  Charleston, Charlotte, Atlanta
August  (1968 - 1969)  Charlotte, NC
The Jazz Crusaders  (1969 - 1971)  Los Angeles, CA

Hugh Masequela  (1970 - 1971)  Los Angeles, CA
The Palace Band  (1976 until Today)  Memphis, TN

Wayne also played with The Four Tops, The Drifters, Barbara Lewis, Clyde McPhatter, Mary Wells, The Dixiecups, The Shirells, Spider Turner, The Tams, Major Lance and many other 60’s Soul, Rhythm & Blues and Motown groups.

 

Opened concerts for Dionne Warwick, The Jackson 5, Little Richard, Sly & the Family Stone, Vanilla Fudge and Rare Earth.

Recording sessions with Phil Volk (“Fang”) of Paul Revere and the Raiders,
Monk Montgomery (the brother of Wes Montgomery), and some of the top studio musicians in Los Angeles, such as Elvis Presley’s Drummer and Bass player.

Played lead guitar on many hit records with major recording companies.

Playing LIVE Concerts and recording with Wayne Henderson, Wilton Felder, Stix Hooper and Joe Sample of “The Jazz Crusaders”.

 

Wayne sang, played and co-wrote songs with his partner, Jimmy Barden, the staff songwriter at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, California.    
Steve Allen became their manager, and they recorded their first album.

 

Out of 500 guitars players who auditioned for the lead guitar position with the
Everly Brothers, (who had a Network TV show and were making a comeback at the time), he was chosen to play lead guitar for them.

 

Not long after that, a Los Angeles producer called him, and told him that the lead guitar player had just left a group called Delaney and Bonnie & Friends, and asked if he wanted to replace Eric Clapton as their lead guitar player.

TOGETHER

 Wayne and Jeanne, featured with The Villagers, played live concerts, resorts, concert clubs and colleges on the entire east coast and throughout the mid-south.
They played at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion for the first time in May of '65.

The Villagers first record, "You Don't Know What You've Got Until You Lose It" was recorded in May 1966 and was number one in Myrtle Beach during the summer of 1966.

Jim Owens, the Villagers manager, had the band booked for the summer of '66 and consecutive summers. (This inspired Jim Owens to write and produce the stage play, "The Summer of '66" which ran for two seasons at the Crook and Chase Theater in Myrtle Beach starting on May 2, 1999.  A musical stage production portraying The Villagers life and music of the 60's.)

They moved from Charleston, South Carolina to Charlotte, North Carolina where they filmed the next two seasons of The Village Square TV show, and later to Atlanta, Georgia in 1967 to film the shows.

 

At this time The Village Square was being seen in over 50 television markets throughout
the country.  

 

Cities like Atlanta, New York, Charlotte, Nashville, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, San Francisco, Columbia, Charleston, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Louisville, Montgomery, etc.

Some of the guest stars that appeared on the series over the years were Dionne Warwick, Ronnie Millsap, Jackie DeShannon, Roger Miller, Billy Joe Royal, Tommy Roe, The Box Tops, The Tams, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Lemon Pipers, Joe South, Spider Turner, Kenny Odell, The New Beats, Marion Love, The Wayfarers, and many others.

 

Today

Wayne and Jeanne play larger venues with "The Palace Band", their 5 piece group who have played together for over  30 years.

After 40 years together as husband and wife they have decided again to also work as a duo performing all of the classics of Pop, Country, 50's, 60's and 70's Rock, Jazz and Blues and Motown.

Considering their early years it seemed only natural that they should perform the music of the classics.

They have found that most people love all types of music, especially the old favorites.

If you enjoy the greatest music of all time, and all the great songs you fell in love with, we're sure you will enjoy "Your Favorites " with Wayne & Jeanne.