I love the Little River Band, and I always have.  Ever since I first heard that song about the loser, I knew that these guys had somehow snuck into my room when I was sleeping and read all my mail.  And since then, I’ve been a number one fan, and one of the things that I really love about them is how they didn’t know what to call themselves, because they were Australian, and wanted to do music that the whole world would like, and when they were passing by a little river, the name was settled on, because it stuck.  But then over the years they’ve gotten to embrace their Australian roots even more, and this is an exciting evolution.

It’s great to hear that they will be playing in Ocean City this summer, because it’s to celebrate 35 years of their history as a band, and that’s the perfect age to be settled into an identity.  They keep changing, though, as multi-faced as the sphinx, and as timeless.  It would be a good idea to get a hotel ahead of time, and it would be a great excuse to get to see New Jersey.  This is the New Jersey with the shore and all the things in the Cool Change song, so it would be a romantic evening as well as an evening to reminisce about the past 35 years.

They’ve had a really great run, with a lot of hits in all of these years.  Every song speaks to a certain time in my life, when I had questions, or just wanted someone to be singing about what I felt.  They use harmonies, which is one of their big trademarks.  Even with all the different members they’ve had over the years, they’ve managed to keep that part of their musical vision intact.  Take It Easy on Me was the song that I loved the most when I was in high school, and I would play it whenever someone didn’t like me the way that I liked them.  It’s different now, being older, and that lonesomeness is replaced with a kind of beautiful move into an older me.