Joss Stone is a 16-year-old white girl from Devon. It's as well to remind yourself of this fact when listening to her extraordinary debut album, because for all the world she sounds like a vintage soul singer from a bygone age, rich, smoky and absolutely captivating. Already a star in America, her remarkable vocal talent is only now beginning to become noticed on this side of the Atlantic with the release of The Soul Sessions, a collection of cover versions designed to whet the appetite for an album of Stone's own material next year. It contains standards from the likes of Aretha Franklin (All The King's Horses), some rarities such as Laura Lee's 'Dirty Man' and the occasional curved ball such as an outrageously funky version of the White Stripes' rocker 'Fell In Love With a Girl'. With talent, beauty and 70s soul star Betty Wright as her mentor, Stone would appear to have it all - watching her career take off promises to be one of the highlights of 2004.

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