Maid Of Stone Festival – Sunday. If everyone on Saturday caught pneumonia or at least a cold from the weather, then Sunday was quite the opposite, with a proliferate sun tan and burned skin by the end of the day. There was also more in attendance today, and the acts lined up were a bigger draw. The Sons Of Liberty took the stage.
Sons Of Liberty
If Brave Rival kicked off the Phoenix stage with a signal of intent, then exactly the same could be said of Sons Of Liberty on the main Jeff Beck Stage. The Sons are an interesting band, UK-produced, yet they deliver their songs with a very strong Southern state feel.
Their brand of rock and blues leans heavily towards the older Southern Boogie Bands, and there is clear evidence of influences such as Skynyrd and Blackfoot in their song library as well as that of new bands such as Black Stone Cherry. Mix that up, and you have the Sons.
And that is exactly what the audience wanted to hear. On a sunny day, with all thoughts of Saturday now behind us, the Sons walked out on stage prepared to enthusiastically rip it up.
With new singer Russ Grimmett at the helm, they were in no mood to ease themselves into the day, and with guitars fired up, they tore up the park with a selection of good time, heads down, Southern-style rockers.
In typical style, they unleashed their two-pronged guitar attack with Fred Hale and Andy Muse taking turns to rip out the solos, playing off each other and laying down a steady stream of catchy guitar riffs. With songs like Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief, and fan favourite Up Shit Creek, they already have a solid catalogue of tunes to call from.
Yet they were happy to try out some new numbers. The first written with Russ on board, Turn This Tide, made a clear statement that this band are on the up and have taken all the musical ability and strength in songwriting from their past albums and given it a big boost.
Russ certainly showed no nervousness and worked the audience from the moment that he hit the stage, with arms in the air, singalongs aplenty and non-stop good-time vibes. He and the band were clearly having the times of their lives.
Even when slowing matters up for a while with I Come In Peace from the Aces And Eights album, they were able to show their dexterity as more traditional blues musicians, yet rock ‘n’ roll is clearly in their hearts and with closing songs such as Don’t Like To Hide Your Weakness, Beef Jerky Boogie and set closer Ruby Starr they showed they could more than hold their own as a hard-driving rock ‘n’ roll band.
It was pretty clear that the Sons were well received, and they were the perfect kickstart to the main stage on what was to become one helluva Sunday.
What was fabulous about the main stage acts on Sunday was how you could watch a band, leave with a grin, wondering if the next act would be able to follow on in the same vein, and then release that each act was seriously upping the ante and putting on what was to become a great days music.
Maid Of Stone Festival 2023 was held over the weekend of 21-23 July 2023. MetalTalk’s Adrian Stonley, Paul Monkhouse and Robert Sutton were reporting from Mote Park.
All Photography: Robert Sutton
Early Bird tickets are available for next year’s festival held over 19-21 July 2024. Tickets are available from here.
All MetalTalk Maid Of Stone 2023 coverage is at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/maid-of-stone-festival-2023
