LITTLE RIVER BAND — 2013
Wayne Nelson, the longtime leader of the band known for such hits as “Help Is On the Way,” “Reminiscing,” “Lonesome Loser,” “Lady” and “Cool Change,” spoke of music’s value in people’s aging process and psyche.
Keeping a younger mindset works for Nelson, sharing his own memories of the band’s consistent chart presence in closing the 1970s and opening the ’80s.
“When we were in our 20s back then,” he said, “and at that time, musicians were dying in their 20s and 30s. You didn’t think you’d be in a band for two or three years at a time. I just passed age 60. … Is it music keeping us young, or being young to keep our attachment to memories?
“People say every night, ‘Thanks for taking me back to high school,’ and ‘Thanks for taking me back and making me feel 16 again.’”
Nelson also grasps the “amazing” contrast from a traditional small, indoor venue from an outdoor party for thousands of folks at a festival such as Mayfest on Main.
“Nothing is more intense than people looking at every twitch of yours that they can see and feel,” Nelson said of the former.
Aware of being adjacent to North Myrtle Beach’s northern neighboring community of Little River, Nelson said the band — founded in Australia — has stayed various times there and seen many other places of the same name across the country.
“There are Little Rivers in all 50 states,” he said. “In North Carolina, Texas, Illinois … . They’re all over the place.”