Joss Stone

Midway through the third track on The Soul Sessions, the debut of 16-year-old English singing sensation Joss Stone, I had one of those “Wait a minute!” moments. The slowly percolating soul number sounded unnervingly familiar. Fumbling for the CD-sleeve credits, I saw the writer of “Fell in Love With a Boy” listed as Jack White—yep, from the White Stripes. Big-voiced Stone takes the song straight to Muscle Shoals, remaking it as her own. She does the same with the other nine cuts, beginning with Joe Simon’s Harlan Howard-penned “The Chokin’ Kind” and finishing with the Isley Brothers’ “For the Love of You,” with soul vets Betty Wright, Timmy Thomas and Latimore showing up to help out. It ain’t perfect, but Stone blasts the ex-Mouseketeer club back to Orlando nevertheless. Quite promising.