Progarchy * Progopolis * ProgRepublic * Proghalla

Dear Music Lovers, Carl E. Olson (famed editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight, for Ignatius Press) and I founded this blog on October 11, 2012.  It was Carl’s idea, but I ran with it.  He, Chris Morrissey, and Kevin McCormick, and I have been arguing and discussing music for quite awhile now.  With Carl’s suggestion, we decided to make our conversations public.  Though each of us is a lover of progressive rock music (hence, the title of the blog), we also love any music that is good, true, and beautiful.  So, while we will review, comment on, and notice prog music, we will also do the same with jazz, classical, soundtracks, and other types of music (though not rap or country).  We’ll post interviews and repost interviews.  We’ll write articles and repost great stuff from around the web.  Each of us has agreed to post as often as we wish, whenever we wish without the censorship of an editor.  I’m the administrator (and I’m still learning this whole web/wordpress thing) but I’m only an equal editor in the big scheme of things.  Our model is the Dutch Progressive Rock Page (dprp.net), perhaps the finest music reviewing site on the web.  Unlike DPRP, however, we will be posting as irregularly and as often as possible.

We encourage any person, artist, group, label, etc. who would like things reviewed (old, reissued, and new) to send us a link for a download (progarchist@gmail.com) or a physical copy to: Brad Birzer, Progarchy, 6 West Montgomery, Hillsdale MI 49242.  I promise you that nothing you send will be unreviewed or unnoticed.  This is what we love, and we will do everything possible to get the word out about your work.  Anything you send to us will constitute a binding, sacred trust between you and us.  We will never take such a thing lightly.

We will be reviewing books and artwork related to music as well.

Carl is an artist, an author of several excellent works, and a professional editor.  Chris is a classical scholar, linguist, translator, and professional philosopher.  Kevin is a professional classical guitarist, composer, and award-winning poet.  I am a professional historian and author.  What do we have in common: we’re all roughly the same age, we’re each very intense and passionate about what we do, and we’ve each been in love with music as far back as any of us can remember.  Of the four, I’m the oldest–having been born in the last days of the Summer of Love (1967).

Long live progarchy,

Brad Birzer