Fort Pastor- Beautiful Imperfection Review

Artist: Fort Pastor
Title: Beautiful Imperfection
Website: http://www.fortpastor.com
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/fortpastor
Style: Pop/ Acoustic Roots Rock
Label: KOCH/ Kosmos Records
Lineup: Brant Christopher Menswar (lead vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica), Jeffrey Todd Keel (resonator guitar, vocals), Jono Callow (didgeridoo, bass, vocals, percussion)
Rating: 9.3 out of 10
By C.W. Ross

 

Let's start off with an explanation for the band's name Fort Pastor.  "The name comes from a zombie movie; it comes from a movie called, "Dawn of the Dead," band member Menswar explains. "In that movie, Fort Pastor is the military fort that is the safe haven that everyone in town is trying to get to, to keep away from the zombies. And for us, it was more of a political statement, dating back to the '60s when zombie movies kind of first were in their heyday. At that time, the film was much more of a political statement about society and our consumerism and our need to consume everything around us -- where we slavishly become zombies to it."

 

The band members all currently reside in Orlando, FL., but originally Brant Christopher Menswar comes from Manchester, NH, Jeffrey Todd Keel is from Dalhart, TX, and Jono Callow hails from Melbourne Australia.

 

Beautiful Imperfection is their debut release on KOCH/Kosmos Records although the band has one other independent release, Alive Inside that was released in 2006.

 

Beautiful Imperfection is a collection of 13 songs that blend pop and acoustic rock roots music with a touch of a world sound provided by the extensive use of the didgeridoo found in it. After hearing the didgeridoo playing on this release it has now replaced the bagpipe as my favorite non-traditional instrument.

 

The band credits groups like The Dave Matthews Band and The John Butler Trio for influencing their sound. They also give some credit to artist like Billy Joel, Elton John, and James Taylor.

 

I really enjoyed the time spent listening to this release. The issue-oriented songs are well crafted and have a different sound then most of the other music out there now.  The songs feature nice smooth vocals along with a variety of rhythmic percussion parts. The didgeridoo parts where mesmerizing and really brought the songs to life.

 

One song that I'm sure you'll recognize on the CD is the band's interesting cover of the Seal song, "Crazy." The song has a nice tempo and flow to it.

 

The band also has a not so normal spiritual side. Here's what band member Brant Christopher Menswar had to say,  "We feel a lot of times that people look at us as being a little bit crazy," Menswar admits, "being that we're Christians, but we don't play a lot of churches. We kind of go to the places where we feel people need to hear what we're singing about and sometimes that's bars, sometimes it's prisons and wherever our message needs to be heard. So we're kind of a non-traditional band of Christians." "We'd much prefer to sing to people that haven't heard it, than preach to the choir."

 

Beautiful Imperfection will touch you both with its music and song subjects. Add this one to your must buy music list.

 

The band has a just don't talk about instead but put your words into action type of attitude. In 2007 they started a non-profit organization called Social Justice Army. The mission of the group is to inspire, rally and organize others to serve one another by providing opportunities to serve as a group within their local communities, thereby building hopes, conviction and courage in themselves and those they serve.

 

Members of the organization commit to serving their local community one hour a month. Their slogan is, "Changing the world an one hour at a time." For more information on the group and how you can get involved in it visit there website at: http://www.socialjusticearmy.org .