It seems like the Tik Tok effect has worked for two “unknown” musicians.
Adam McInnis and a singer guitarist named Daddy Jack have placed 12 different songs on the iTunes top 100. Three of them are in the top 10.
They call themselves Sons of Legion, and have about a dozen videos that the TikTok crowd are eating up.
Sons of Legion follow in the path of Teddy Swims and Jelly Roll, with gutteral voices that recall Southern blues like Lynyrd Skynyrd, and even Hootie and the Blowfish.
They have a notable lack of publicity but a lot of copy. They say they met in Nashville at a songwriters night. They have a carefully curated look of the cool old West.
In reality, McInnis, at least, is a well known quantity in music and movie circles. He’s from Manhattan (New York, not Kansas), has worked on several film soundtracks, and is an expert in music licensing. (It’s unclear who Daddy Jack is, but there’s a website for a Daddy Jack Band and a guy in a hat and sunglasses who bares a resemblance.)
The pair’s videos are very professional for a group that claims “no label, no manager, no publicist.” The whole Sons of Legion package is well curated to seem like a grassroots effort. But wait: they say their songs have garnered over 20 million streams on Spotify and featured on major platforms like ESPN, Dodge Ram commercials, Netflix, and NBC.
According to Luminate, which isn’t up to date on this week’s breakout, Sons of Legion have had 2.5 million streams so far this year, and 5 million in their career.
Which isn’t to say that Sons of Legion haven’t made good records. They do. Five of the songs on the top 10 are available for free download on their website. One of them is a cover of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight.” All the songs are on iTunes and Spotify, and the men even have their own “record label.” There’s also three whole albums that they sell on their website for $10.99. So far none of them has charted. They also sell a coffee mug.)
Are Sons of Legion contrived? Maybe a little bit. It does seem like five years or so of work has finally paid off big time. It feels like two seasoned musicians got wise about marketing, and have found a pot of gold. Good for them! They say they’ve been approached by all the major labels, so we’ll see where this all winds up.
