Written during a cold mid-winter rural Manitoba night, before the age of streaming, reflecting on how radio used to be a trusted companion on many late nights many years ago,

Radio (2002)

I remember the nights on the farm where I grew up
I could look out my bedroom window and see New York
And all of the radio stations, I’d spin the dial at night 
All of the family’d be sleeping but not I
 
'Cos there were concerts on rock 102 and talk on '55 
While the edge of alternative clearly was CFNY
The "Q" would play side one of Queen, to share their latest sound
They’d say "get your tape decks ready", and put the needle down
 
	Well this may seem like nostalgia or an idealistic gaze
	But I’m waiting for a sound to break through all the haze 

Cos here in the radio wasteland, there’s nowhere to go
You can cruise up and down the dial, til the cows come home
But you never can find you a station that fills you with delight
One that while everybody is sleeping keeps you up at night 
 
	Cos we’ve got eighties, 90s whatever
	It’s all become so cheap	
	I’m just waiting for an innovator
	To wake us from this sleep - from this sleep

Doing Just Fine

Radio

Leaving Omaha (1995)

Leaving Omaha 
In the middle of the day
Your head on my shoulder
We're a thousand miles away

The highway's full of cars w
With their radio's tuned
But we just drive in silence
And look into the rear view

Omaha - unexpectedly
Omaha - I've never been so free

Down in market square
The rain on cobblestone
Hand in hand we wandered
And listened to a lonely song

Omaha - unexpectedly
Omaha - I've never been so free

Bridge:
You try to live your life so you will never be let down
But then the unexpected comes and spins you around
How was I to know that I was living all my days
Saving for the future while the present quietly slips away?

but brought me to

Omaha - unexpectedly
Omaha - I've never been so free

Leaving Omaha 
In the middle of the day
Your head on my shoulder
We're a thousand miles away

Popular tracks by Steve Abma