Joss Stone captivates with New look and Sound

When she made her debut several years back at only 15, belter Joss Stone was an instant wow, a young girl mining soul’s past with a voice beyond her years.

Now 19, with a stunning new album, “Introducing Joss Stone”, due in March, she’s proving to be the true heiress to Aretha Franklin as this generation’s queen of soul. Her sold-out show Wednesday at the Sunset Strip House of Blues not only drummed up interest in the upcoming release, it announced that she most definitely has arrived as a superstar.

After an intro instrumental from her soul revue-style band, led by producer Raphael Saadiq, that included horns and backing singers, a new Stone took the stage. This wasn’t the blond girl next door of past years; she sported a whole new look of long, permed magenta hair and wore a tight gold and silver minidress. She was instantly captivating.

But the new look was all in play, without any pretence, and it wasn’t too long before she kicked off her high-heeled pumps to sing her favourite way: barefoot. Giddily sprinkling some glitter on the crowd up front like a soul-shoutin’ Tinker Bell and saying, “I’m a proper girly-girl”, she wowed the audience with a mix of new numbers that were more than well received, along with a few songs from her first two albums.

There were echoes of Holland-Dozier-Holland Supremes and Honey Cone, Al Green and, of course, Lady Soul herself, but this was not a retro retreat; the music also included contemporary hip-hop and R&B elements in numbers like the bouncy “Girls, You Won’t Believe It” and the slinky, heartbeat pulse of “Music”.

She was joyous for the night’s centrepiece, the groove-deep “Super Duper Love”, while such new songs as the churning, hooky “What Were We Thinking” and summertime-breezy pledge of “Tell Me What We’re Gonna Do Now” already sounded like future hits ready to follow her advance single, the irresistible, struttin’, Staple Singers-style “Tell Me ‘Bout It”, which came near the end of the hour-plus set.

Unlike today’s so-called “divas” — and we know who they are — Stone doesn’t engage in grating histrionics. Sure, she can wail away and go from whisper to roof-raising in seconds, but she’s never over the top. This Stone’s a gem, and she’s shining bright.

Album Cover

Joss Stone’s album cover for her up coming 3rd studio album release is AMAZING!!!! She looks hot and i cant wait til i get my hands on it!

Introducing Joss Stone

INTRODUCING JOSS STONE VIRGIN RECORDS TO RELEASE JOSS STONE’S NEW ALBUM MARCH 20TH JOSS TO PREVIEW THE ALBUM VIA SOLD OUT LIVE.. PERFORMANCES IN NEW YORK AND LOS ANGELES

New York, NY – British soul singer and songwriter Joss Stone will release her third album, Introducing Joss Stone, on March 20th on Virgin Records. An electrifying mix of warm vintage soul, ’70s-style R&B, Motown girl-group harmonies, and hip-hop grooves, the album is the one that Stone describes as “truly me. That’s why I’m calling it Introducing Joss Stone,” she says. “These are my words, and this is who I am as an artist.”

Knowing she wanted to write the album alone, Stone decamped to Barbados in April to come up with lyrics. She stayed for several months before flying to the Bahamas to hook up with her main musical collaborator and producer Raphael Saadiq (known for his work with D’Angelo, The Roots, and Macy Gray). “Raphael [who plays bass on the album] is the most incredible musician I’ve ever met in my whole life,” Stone says. “Musically, I feel like he reads my mind. I’ll give him a look and he’ll know exactly what I want.” Stone and Saadiq spent two months recording in the Bahamas, and then mixed it at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

Other musical collaborators include rapper/singer/songwriter and producer Novel, who is the grandson of soul legend Solomon Burke and has written songs for Kelis and India.Arie, as well as Beau Dozier, son of Motown legend Lamont Dozier, whom she wrote with on her last album, 2004’s gold-certified Mind, Body & Soul. The album also features guest vocal appearances by the rapper Common on “Tell Me What We’re Going to Do,” and reclusive Fugees singer Lauryn Hill, who lends a rap to the languid Fugees-inspired track “Music.”

Stone first emerged on the music scene as a preternaturally gifted 16-year-old with a “rich, deep, soulful belt,” as the New York Post put it, calling her “unlike any singer of her generation.” In 2003, she released The Soul Sessions, an album of covers of obscure soul tracks, hit the road for a year, then recorded Mind, Body & Soul, her first album of original material. Stone was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 2005, including Best New Artist, and performed a tribute to Janis Joplin with Melissa Etheridge at the ceremony.

Over the course of her career, Stone has also appeared onstage with James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Mavis Staples, Donna Summer, Smokey Robinson, Rob Thomas, John Mayer, and John Legend. She has performed for more than 200,000 people at the 2005 Live 8 concert in London and most recently wowed the crowd with her rendition of Dusty Springfield’s “Son of a Preacher Man” at the UK Music Hall of Fame Awards in November. Now 19, Stone has sold over 7.5 million albums worldwide.