Show rs Stone on is s Introducing her true self u Ann Powers C Los klos o A Angeles Angelis Times' Times 0 C JoS Stone tone sometimes h has i trouble standing to tough gh onstage Dotage g The The r reason son she g gets gets- gets t wobbly St Stage ge fright the The Thc J year old year 19 singer and songwriter ter w whose os third bum Introducing Joss Stone t makes its US U.S. chart chaft hart debut on Wednesday J learned a few years ago ih the best way to avoid a aCro aro crowds Cro ro scrutiny is to avert jour pur gaze y I I close my cy eyes s a lot Stone ne said xe recently as as s she unwound I after taping a a. pr promotional i notional motional appear appearance nce a a in n nearby Burbank I dont don't want t to know that that everybody is isk k staring g at f rob mc me and arid judging me met whether her they lik like ny my cJ clothes thes nor th color of m my hair So J I go gf into another When n I op open n my eyes yes t that's ai 1 start tart start giggling and ande e everything when v e I Itea tea ie Qi Q no everybody's ys s 's looking at me Ston Stones Stone's s 's nerv nerves s ha have ve been afflicting her lief lately and for good goodr r reason Introducing is expected ex to debut al of or near j the top op of tl chart with witha a rec record company rd-c rd mp p projection of week first week first sales in the neighborhood of copies Yet Y Yet t Jt it it ha has been dogged by y mixed reviews review and growing skepticism about her i integrity ii grif The album album which debuted in her native J England at No 12 along with a pl plummeting first single is a painful disappointment i in light of the artists artist's insistence that her two previous multi- multi platinum efT efforts did not reflect liar her I vision and that this this is her first real artistic st statement Add a from Fleet Street after she sheb b behaved haved nervously at af the Brit Awards online fuss over her new p pink coif and alleged marijuana use and cheap gossip ab about ut her relationships with male collaborators and Stone is facing a savage avage spring Success in the US U.S. may maybe maybe be her revenge but one thing is sure The Thc days of simple amazement at atStone's atStone's atStone's Stones Stone's monumental chops are gone replaced by the challenges of adulthood Are the criticisms of Stone fair In both conversation and pe performance Stone comes off ofT as a big talent still discovering herself but getting sick of doing so in public She's a hot-button hot girl but its it's more than just her youth and gender that set people spinning The flap over Introducing brings up issues of race authenticity and artistic license that have been debated since the dawn of pop Stone whose birth name is Joscelyn Stoker grew up in a privileged household her father is a highly successful importer of pried dried fruit listening to soul music Somebody told my mum that you get your pitch within the first three years of your life she said She says that I got mine from Anita Baker because she was playing her a lot After school Joss would put on Dusty Springfield's Greatest Hits and cook dinner for her family as the original eyed blue soul singers singer's voice wafted through the kitchen Factor in her brothers brother's penchant for school old-school hop hip-hop dads dad's Jam and her grannys granny's fondness for Led Zeppelin and it adds up to a smorgasbord of takes on black music from both sides of the racial divide Unlike many artists who absorb these sources and then take time to make them into something new Stone became a star in her mid She won an American style Idol TV talent contest at 14 by singing Donna Summers Summer's SummersOn On the Radio and soon signed with a manager who brought her to Miami where she recorded her debut under the guidance of soul singer Betty Wright Stones Stone's big voice and gift f for r channeling her sources gained her instant notice and soon she found herself learning at the feet of the very people whose recordings had shaped her childhood reveries I learn from Lamont Dozier Gladys Knight Patti LaBelle she said name-checking name one great songwriter and two essential divas from souls soul's greatest era I sit around and soak up whatever they want to give me Ive I've had long H A J ull ft d dH dLos H Lo Los Angeles Times photo by Wally ally My mom told me when I was young Just be like a sponge And that's what Im I'm trying to be says Stone conversations with them My mom told me when I Iwas Iwas Iwas was young Just be like a sponge And that's what Im I'm trying to be The problem is a sponge isn't an artist especially as defined by Anglo American pop culture which values individualism over the upholding of tradition The gifted student approach that Stone took on her first two albums which have sold and 12 million copies in the US U.S. respectively is now a weight around her neck Introducing produced by veteran RB Raphael Saadiq is Stones Stone's attempt to break free of the vintage aura of her earlier work which she feels was too uniform If theres there's one fault on Introducing its it's that Stones Stone's comfort level with that tradition remains too high Throughout the album she sings in a voice she learned from those soul albums the lilt of coastal England never surfaces Crafting a new self from beloved popular cultural sources Stone is very much of her generation its it's her sincerity her refusal to see that identity as artificial that singles her out For Saadiq Stones Stone's affinity for black music musie is simply part of the pop tradition He sees her as operating in the tradition of legendary acts such as Elvis Presley the Rolling Stones and the Beatles I cant can't answer why others might come down hard on Joss he said except that they might be short of a history lesson |