Fortune Child:
BUILT ON FAITH & FATE
Written by Jessica Giraldo
Videography by Sebastain Reece
Photographed by Chloee Blair
It’s intrinsic to human nature to scour for a purpose larger than ourselves, a prize only we can claim as our own "Fortune Child:” something with which to become enamored, to nurture, an expression of purpose, destiny and the belief that the universe is nudging us in the right direction.
However, there’s an undeniable irony in the phrase. The word fortune suggests something inherited rather than earned, as if luck were bestowed, rather than chased.
It's hardly the image one would associate with three musicians hauling their own gear across the country in a pickup truck, booking their own tours, buying plane tickets out of pocket and placing unshakable faith not only in the music, but in one another.
Jon Ward embraces that contradiction - "I think it can kind of be either one. Even our band can be either one of those two things depending on the mood we're in that day."
To him, Fortune Child has never belonged to a single interpretation. On some days, it embodies optimism and faith; on others, it's a force that storms onto a stage with something to prove.
Founded in 2021, Fortune Child merges the souls of guitarist Buddy Crump, drummer and lead vocalist Christian Powers, and bassist Jon Ward, giving birth to a compelling experience uniquely their own.
“We like for people to leave our shows a little freaked out,” Powers says with a grin, setting off laughter from Ward and Crump. “We’ve seriously had people come up to us after shows like, ‘Dude, that’s a freaky sound.’”
When the music reaches your ears, Fortune Child sounds perpetually on the verge of breaking open, as if it’s reaching toward something larger, with pulverizing guitar riffs, poignant vocal lines and mesmerizing rhythms layered into a surreal whole that draws the listener into the entire work, rather than simply listening.
Although their musical beginnings couldn't have looked more different, none of the three ever speaks about music as a choice.
For bassist Jon Ward, it began before he can remember. Piano lessons as a child led him to trumpet in school, then to guitar and finally to bass, almost by accident, after a high school band needed someone to fill the role. He earned a degree in jazz trumpet before spending years taking any gigs he could find, eventually carving out a career as a full-time bassist and recording engineer at Retrophonics Recording Studio in Crescent Beach.
Looking back, Ward says, "The question was never, Will I do this? That was taken care of for me by the universe or God...then I just kind of played the hand I was dealt."
Christian Powers carries that same certainty. Before the band, he was already trying to make a living from music, moving from gig to gig with the confidence of someone who had never entertained the idea of another life path. Being a musician wasn't an aspiration or a dream deferred, it simply was a part of his soul contract. The question was never if music would become his life, only how he would continue building one within it.
Spinning records with his father and eventually playing alongside him, Buddy Crump’s story starts at home. He speaks of music with reverence enmeshed in the very fiber of his being. Submerged in the music, he remembers his earliest years not as just picking up an instrument, but as a shared connection. The intensity that spills from his guitar traces back to those moments of youth and sacredness.
“When I was younger, I saw Christian playing at The Little Blues Club in Jacksonville Beach. I saw him, and I always kept him in mind if I wanted to start something really serious, and we did,” Crump shares.
Once the two committed to the project, Powers offered bassist Jon Ward a chance to join the journey. Together, the trio realized they had a chemistry unlike anything they had experienced in previous bands. It’s a connection they struggle to explain beyond terms like instinct, intuition or telepathy.
"When I play with those guys, they bring something out of me," Crump says. "There's a Jon thing, and there's a Christian thing, and when we come together, certain things happen that maybe wouldn't if you were playing with different people. It's just special - kind of like an inside joke."
Creativity for Fortune Child is seldom a solitary endeavor. Songs are born less from one bandmate than from a conversation between three friends who instinctively understand one another's rhythms. More often than not, the process begins with guitarist Crump arriving with a riff. After that, the three sift through ideas together, constructing the framing of a song piece by piece until it takes on a life of its own.
"It kind of creates a songwriting machine in a way," Christian Powers says. "We're just able to put out a lot of different ideas that way."
Ward's role and experience at Retrophonics Recording Studio has also found its way back into Fortune Child. As the band prepares future projects, Ward says they're increasingly interested in bringing the recording process in-house, allowing the same collaborative spirit that shapes their songwriting to define every stage of their music, from the first riff to the final mix.
Once the music finds its shape, Powers begins to flesh out the track’s lyricism. A brooding progression may inspire darker imagery, while an energetic groove sends his thoughts elsewhere.
"I tend to do a lot of journaling and stream-of-consciousness type of stuff," Powers says.
"Depending on where I'm at in life or what's occurring around me, I'll jot things down. As songwriters and musicians, you're trying to create this image - paint a picture - within a song's time frame. Vague is always the way. You're able to relate to people that way without being too on the nose,” he expresses.
For the group, the road begins long before the first note is played on stage. Without a manager or booking agency behind them, the trio has constructed their touring life from the ground up, handling nearly every aspect themselves, from routing and venue outreach to travel logistics and promotion. Powers describes the process as both "a blessing and a curse."
"It's kind of like being on a trip with your best friends. Aside from playing the shows, that's my favorite part," he says. That freedom, however, comes with countless hours spent sending emails, making phone calls and piecing together tours one connection at a time.
"Nine out of 10 shows we play, we've reached out to the venues ourselves," Powers states.
"We're pulling contacts out of the woodwork and figuring out ways to connect people…to make a show happen."
Instead of chasing the ever-changing demands, the band has remained steadfast in their philosophy: create the best music they can, stay true to themselves and trust that the right opportunities will follow.
Alongside building a reputation as a formidable live act, Fortune Child earned the 2022 Great Atlantic Southern Rock Revival Spotlight, presented by iHeartRadio and Planet Radio. A year later, the band reached another milestone by joining The Black Crowes on tour before being selected for the 2024 Joe Bonamassa Blues Cruise.
They recollaborated with The Black Crowes later that year, recording their live album, Live at The Amp, while on the road, before venturing on their first European tour. The tour included sold-out shows across Spain, France and Belgium, with those performances later released on the live EP, European Fever Dream.
That momentum continued into 2025 with the release of their full-length album, She Was a Dove, further cementing a career built almost entirely on their own terms.
Next, Fortune Child returns to the road for its "Summer Flow" tour, kicking off on July 16 at Center Stage in Atlanta alongside Lightwatch, then traveling through the South and West before concluding in Florence, Alabama.
What lingered after speaking with the band wasn't stories about tours or albums, but the ease with which the three interacted. Conversation never felt forcedstories surfaced naturally, often punctuated by shared laughter or one member instinctively picking up where another had left off.
Though Buddy, Christian and Jon each arrived at Fortune Child through different musical journeys, they share the same certainty: they are artists. There is no hesitation, no contingency plan, no lingering doubt. Music is not simply what they do, it’s the lens through which they understand themselves and the purpose around which they've built their lives.
For Crump, that purpose reveals itself most clearly under the stage lights.
"The shows for me end up being a spiritual kind of experience because of the confidence level that we have in each other to be able to come together and give people a certain experience," he says.
Perhaps that's the real meaning of a Fortune Child: not someone born into luck, but someone fortunate enough to recognize the thing they were always meant to do and embrace it, heart and soul.
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