A Song Before Sunset, by David Rowland Grigg

As Chanda Phelan found in her research, most of the apocalypses portrayed in the 70s were of the destructive variety, war or environmental. Catastrophes that lead to shell-shocked survivors struggling to survive in ruined cities by any means necessary.

That's exactly the setting of the short story A Song Before Sunset, by David Rowland Grigg, from 1976.

After finishing the audiobook of One Second After, I needed something to listen to, so I Googled around for post-apocalyptic audiobooks, and came across A Song Before Sunset on Telltale Weekly, a provider of low cost, DRM-free audiobook downloads, for just $1.

The story runs for 28 minutes, and I thought it was great; a classic post-apocalypse with a city turned to rubble, streets full of rusted out cars, and survivors hunting rats for food and trading their skins for candles and tools. And through it all, an aging man, a former musician, works desperately to restore an old piano so that he can play a final concert, if only for himself.

It's a great story, particularly if you're in to that particular post-apocalyptic setting like I am. I'm not sure if it's available in print anywhere, but for just a buck, the audiobook version is a great way to kill half an hour.

Edit: Ok, a quick search reveals that A Song Before Sunset is actually included in the short story anthology Wastelands edited by John Joseph Adams, which I obviously haven't read yet. It's also apparently available as one story in an anthology which Mr Grigg put up on Smashwords for just $2.