Except for occasionally listening to Pink Floyd in high school, I was Prog-free and indisputably cool in my musical taste. Then about eight years ago, Carl Olsen invited me to join a group of other writers to cover music for Catholic World Report. One of the other writers in that group was Brad Birzer, and the e-mails exchanged within the group frequently referenced this band called Big Big Train, which I’d never heard of. 

I knew in my heart that Prog was always bad, but these other writers all seemed really cool and spoke highly of Big Big Train. I read several of Brad’s articles, which only made me more curious. In one of his articles, he ended with, as I recall, “The Underfall Yard Challenge.” He dared any music fan to listen to “The Underfall Yard” by Big Big Train and not come to the conclusion that it was not one of the most powerful pieces of music they ever heard.

Brad went directly to the “triple dog dare” with that challenge. So on a cold December morning while my wife and son were out shopping, I was at home playing with my 2-year old daughter on the floor. I decided to take the challenge. Within a few minutes, I noticed that we had stopped talking and playing. We were just sitting, hypnotized, and carried away by the beauty of it.

But it was Prog. I hate Prog! This could not be happening. I was embarrassed. I tried to block it out of my mind. Big Big Train wasn’t even signed. These guys still had day jobs. What kind of scam was this? Wasn’t Prog dead in the 70s? Didn’t punk finally kill it?

About six months later, a friend (Prog fan) lent me a bunch of musical equipment for a gig. I wanted to give him a token thank you gift and thought it would be supercool to give him a Prog album that he had never heard of. So as not to embarrass myself, I listened to what Big Big Train had available on YouTube, English Electric Vol. 1. Then the problems started. It was all really good. I couldn’t decide what album to get for him. English Electric Full Powerseemed like the best value. I placed the order on Amazon. 

I walked away from the computer, and then ran back to stop my order, like an addict. I wanted Full Power for myself and The Underfall Yard. Now. I had lost my mind.

Fast forward one month. I go out to start the car, which I hadn’t driven in over a week, and BIG BIG TRAIN IS BLASTING THIS LOUD. My wife and kids had been driving around blasting Big Big Train for the past week. The kids knew all the words. So I emailed Brad because I thought he’d he appreciate the story. Brad forwarded my e-mail to Big Big Train’s leader, Greg Spawton, who was very amused by the story and wrote me the most gracious thank you note. These were my people.

If Big Big Train was that good, then I had to go back and reassess bands that I had categorically dismissed without ever having given a listen – Genesis, Yes, Rush, and King Crimson, as well as contemporary artists such as Marillion and Steven Wilson. It has made for a lot of good listening and opened up new roads of where I can go with my own music, especially when the songs lean in the folk and jazz direction. It has also changed the way I look at how music is covered in the media…but that is a another story.

Mark Sullivan is the guitarist in The Deep Roots and blogs about music on the band’s web-site https://thedeeprootsband.com/