SONS OF LEGION: MUSIC’S BEST KEPT SECRET WON’T BE A SECRET FOR MUCH LONGER
LIVE PREVIEW | SONS OF LEGION: SOUL TO SØL WORLD TOUR by Kevin O’Sullivan
I’ve been waiting a couple of years to write this article.
This November, London finally gets its opportunity to discover what an ever-growing army of fans across the Atlantic have known for some time. Sons of Legion are bringing their Soul to SØL World Tour to Electric Brixton.
Sometimes you can almost feel the momentum building around an artist before the rest of the world catches up. I remember Teddy Swims announcing a couple of intimate dates at London’s Bush Hall before the pandemic cruelly put paid to those plans. Fast forward a few years and he’s selling out Wembley Arena. Zach Bryan has gone from relative obscurity to selling out Hyde Park. Sometimes artists arrive quietly before suddenly becoming impossible to ignore.
You don’t always get these things right, of course, but every now and then an artist comes along that makes you stop and wonder why they aren’t already one of the biggest names in music.
I’ve been following Sons of Legion for a couple of years now and they’ve been making me ask that question ever since.
Sixteen songs charting simultaneously across the iTunes Top 100. More than 55 million streams worldwide. Over 1.5 million monthly Spotify listeners. Music featured across ESPN, Netflix, NBC and Dodge Ram campaigns. Most artists would consider one of those achievements a remarkable success story. Sons of Legion have somehow managed them all whilst remaining fiercely independent.
And perhaps that’s what I admire most about them.
Their success wasn’t manufactured in a boardroom or fuelled by a million-pound marketing campaign. Fans discovered the music and simply refused to stop talking about it. One recommendation became another and before long a movement had begun to build around two musicians doing things entirely on their own terms.
It’s old fashioned in the very best sense of the phrase. Trying to squeeze Sons of Legion into a particular genre feels like an impossible task. Southern rock, soul, blues and Americana all weave their way through their music, but none of those descriptions ever quite do them justice. Whatever label you choose to give them, one thing becomes abundantly clear after just a few songs – they’re unapologetically themselves. And in today’s music industry, that’s becoming increasingly rare.
For UK fans, this tour announcement feels particularly significant. Last year’s dates were unfortunately curtailed following illness within the band, leaving many wondering when we’d finally get the opportunity to see Sons of Legion on these shores. Thankfully, that wait is almost over.
I’ve seen this happen before. Artists playing intimate venues before suddenly becoming impossible to get tickets for a few short years later. Whether Sons of Legion follow that trajectory remains to be seen, but I certainly wouldn’t bet against them.
Music doesn’t always give you a second chance to say “I was there”, yet somewhere inside Electric Brixton this November will be people discovering Sons of Legion for the very first time. They’ll go home and spend the next few days listening to songs they can’t believe they’ve somehow managed to miss.
Others will have waited years for this moment to arrive. The lucky ones will simply be able to say they were there.
I have a feeling Sons of Legion are going to surprise an awful lot of people.
We’ll see you at Electric Brixton.
