Plains of Nebraska
Words and Music by Robert Wynne
© 2002

Midwestern skies
Wind blows soft across the grassy land
Long winter nights
Moonlight shining down upon you
like a lantern in the fog

And can you hear it?
A lonely distant echo
Can you feel it?
The chill deep within your bones
Can you see it?
How the land can roll forever
‘Till it almost seems to fall into the sky?

There is truth you will find
in the strangest of places
in the unfamiliar faces
in an unsuspecting mind
There is truth there to see
You only have to ask a
man on the plains of Nebraska
and his words will set you free.

Do you recall
Why you wandered far away from home?
And have you found it
The solitary wisdom that comes
softly in the night?

Just remember
What you seek is more than home
Don’t forget now
The owl’s quiet cry
Heed the calling
For it may pass you just this once
And having passed you never come again

There is truth you will find
in the strangest of places
in the unfamiliar faces
in an unsuspecting mind
There is truth there to see
You only have to ask a
man on the plains of Nebraska
and his words will set you free.

Dawn is breaking
Light spills out across the cold dark sky
And you discover
A peace you’ve never known before
A quiet inner light

So you pack up
Leave the ground the way you found it
On your shoulders
Everything you’ve ever owned
And you look back
For a moment, just forever,
Then turn away and walk against the wind

There is truth you will find
in the strangest of places
in the unfamiliar faces
in an unsuspecting mind
There is truth there to see
You only have to ask a
man on the plains of Nebraska
and his words will set you free.

I wrote the chorus for this song a while back, and it sat in my ideas folder for a long time, because I really liked it, but I wasn’t sure what it was about. While looking through the various contents of that folder, i came across it and suddenly knew what the rest of the song was about.

This is a song about self-discovery and the search for meaning and purpose in life. All of us eventually go on this journey in one way or another, and what we find along the way shapes us in subtle ways we don’t always immediately recognize.