Joss Stone - Colour Me Free

Joss Stone’s voice always raises questions: is she young or old, black or white? As soul star Patti LaBelle once said: “I first heard her before I had seen her, and I said, ‘Where is that black girl from?’ She sounded like a black girl! No, no, not a girl—a black woman.” In fact, when Joss released her debut album, The Soul Sessions, she was a 16-year-old girl with peaches-and-cream complexion from a rural community in Devon, England.

Since then, Joss has become a soul star herself, with Brit Awards, a Grammy and sales of more than 10 million copies of her recordings, including Mind, Body & Soul and Introducing Joss Stone. The latter album was inspired by her breakup with Beau Dozier, son of Motown producer Lamont Dozier. With her appeal across racial lines, Joss was asked by Barack Obama to write and record a song for his presidential campaign. The result was “Governmentalist,” an inspired duet with rapper Nas that appears on her latest album, Colour Me Free.

Now 22, Joss has grown into an accomplished artist, as heard on Colour Me Free, which she calls “very, very raw—basically a bunch of musicians, writers, and myself just jamming.” That jamming has produced such memorable songs as the soul-stirring “Free Me,” the funky “Parallel Lines” and the gospel-drenched “Incredible.” One of the most powerful tracks is the toned-down groove “Big Ole Game.” Subdued or over the top, young Joss is clearly at the top of her game.