Boxing Day celebrity crush: Joss Stone

Photographers are always encouraged to e-mail me at
mentalnomadshow -at- gmail -dot- com with photo credit information.

The huge music listing here might not be comprehensive, but it does include everything that had made its way to her Wikipedia entry (and related discography entry) and IMDB profile when I wrote the early draft of this way back in August before my return to school. (A spot-check today didn't turn up any new additions.) This British songbird had already amassed quite an impressive musical canon for just seven years at that point, enough so that coding the sales items for this entry has taken so long I'm going to save the third Boxing Day entry for another day.

Amazon and iTunes links follow. Any affiliate payments earned from your purchase or rental will help pay the hosting fees for my podcasts, so please consider clicking.

Name: Joss Stone (images | Web site | Twitter)
Hometown: The English city of Dover, according to her Wikipedia profile.
Best Known For: Joss emerged on the music scene as a teenager whose voice belied her young age. She's a soul singer often seen with a nose ring and barefoot on stage, quite often dressed in a hippie-chic style.

Besides her soul work, Joss is a much-sought-after duet partner, having worked with Angelique Kidjo, Santana, Ricky Martin, Ringo Starr, Tower of Power, and Raphael Saadiq, to name just a few. And this year, she joined with Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, and others in the supergroup SuperHeavy; she'd appeared very early in her career on that duo's soundtrack album for the film Alfie, and she's collaborated with Stewart more than once in the interim, so the combination isn't as unusual as Ye Olde Podcaster had first thought.

Humble Beginnings: Her debut album The Soul Sessions made her the youngest female singer to land a No. 1 album on the U.K. music charts. It ain't about being humble here.

(Only music videos from age 18 and up are listed below; but in terms of album sales, the entire span of her work is represented.)

Looking a wee bit like actress Julia Stiles here.

She's branched into acting in recent years, playing Anne of Cleaves on Showtime's The Tudors and appearing in the film Eragon and a short called The Funeral Planner. She also guest-starred as a folk singer on fellow celebrity crush Brittany Snow's retro TV series American Dreams.
Obligatory Edgy Stuff: Not her fault at all, but a couple of (alleged) freaks were arrested this summer in England on charges they intended to kidnap and possibly kill her.

On a more fun note, she appeared nude in the late magazine Jane, offering a quote that she "wasn't into wearing clothes" when she was at home. (That magazine featured tasteful, non-explicit nudes of a lot of people who have never posed nude otherwise -- Kristen Bell, former West Wing co-star Janel Maloney, and a lot of others over the years.)

Less hippie, still chic.

Why Ye Olde Podcaster Likes Her: The voice caught me before I ever saw her or even knew her name; her covers of the White Stripes' "Fell in Love with a Girl" (re-recorded as "Fell in Love with a Boy") and Sugar Billy's "Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin' on Me?) Part 1" were getting radio play at the time, and I was quite fortunate to not send back a music club "selection of the month" card and end up getting the album in the mail.

All the rest -- her hippie-chic persona, her astonishing beauty -- were things I picked up on later. I wouldn't list a singer in the celebrity crush roster if I didn't like her voice or her music; I was reared on soul (Motown and to a lesser extent Stax, to be specific), and even as she's branched into collaborating with musicians from other genres and experimented with the sound of her solo works, Joss Stone continues to impress.
Selected TV and Web Series Credits: The Tudors, season 4 (Amazon | iTunes) * The Tudors, season 3 (Amazon | iTunes) * American Dreams, season 3: "Starting Over" (Amazon | iTunes)

Selected Film and TV-movie Credits: The Funeral Planner (2010 short) (Amazon | iTunes) * The People Speak UK (2010 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Cirque de Soleil's Poetic Social Mission (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * Soundtrack for a Revolution (2009 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scott's (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Snappers (2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Frosted Pink (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Concert for Diana (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * Eragon (Amazon | iTunes) * Herbie Hancock: Possibilities (2006 documentary) (Amazon | iTunes) * Live 8 (2005) (Amazon | iTunes)

Joss' voice acting credits include MI6 agent
Nicole Hunter in the video game
James Bond 007: Blood Stone. She also
contributed a song to the game's soundtrack.

Voice Work: James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2010 video game) (Amazon) * American Dad!, season 5: "Stan's Night Out" (Amazon | iTunes)
Selected Music Videos (as Adult): "Miracle Worker" (SuperHeavy) (iTunes) * "Tell Me 'Bout It" (iTunes) * "Tell Me What We're Gonna Do Now" (iTunes) * "Cry Baby Cry" (Santana feat. Sean Paul and Joss Stone) (iTunes) * "The Best Thing About Me Is You" (Ricky Martin feat. Joss Stone) (iTunes) * "Gimme Shelter" (Angélique Kidjo feat. Joss Stone) (iTunes)

Solo Releases: LP1 (2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Back in Style" (Amazon | iTunes) * "I'll Take It All" (from James Bond 007: Blood Stone, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Every Time I Turn Around" (NCIS soundtrack vol. 2, 2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * Colour Me Free! (2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Love Has Made You Beautiful" (Serve3: Artists Against Hunger & Poverty, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * "All I Want for Christmas" (Amazon | iTunes) * Live at Austin City Limits Musical Festival 2007: Joss Stone (Amazon | iTunes) * Introducing Joss Stone (2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * "What Ever Happened to the Heroes" (Fantastic Four soundtrack, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Treat Me Right (I'm Yours for Life)" (Desperate Housewives soundtrack, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Under Pressure" (Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * Mind Body & Soul (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * Sessions@AOL (2004) (Amazon | iTunes) * The Soul Sessions (2003) (Amazon | iTunes)

This profile was brought to you by the adjective "leggy"
and the sound effect "va-va-voom."

Collaborations: Superheavy (2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Gypsy Girl and Me" (Dave Stewart's The Blackbird Diaries, 2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Other Half of Me" (The E Family's Now & Forever, 2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Anniversary" (Chris Heine's Truth About Love Someone Should Tell You, 2011) (Amazon | iTunes) * "The Best Thing About Me Is You" (Ricky Martin's Música + Alma + Sexo, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * "My Generation" (Nas and Damien Marley's Distant Relatives, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Let the Good Times Roll" (David Sanborn's Only Everything, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Stand Up to Cancer" (with Dave Stewart, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * Emotion & Commotion (Jeff Beck, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * "We Are the Ones" (Melissa Etheridge's Fearless Love, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Who's Your Daddy" (Ringo Starr's Y Not, 2010) (Amazon | iTunes)

(Insert caveat about the inherent creepiness of the "who's your daddy" idea with the possible exception of paternity questions.)

Collaborations, Cont.: "You're the One for Me" (Smokey Robinson's Time Flies When You're Having Fun, 2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Stalemate" (Ben's Brother, Battling Giants, 2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * "This Little Light of Mine" (Buick Audra and Joss Stone, Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration, 2009) (Amazon | iTunes) * "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" (with Al Green, Sex and the City soundtrack, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Tip of My Tongue" (Something Sally's Familiar Strangers, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Great American Soulbook (Tower of Power, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Unchained Melody" (Johnny Hollyday's Ça ne Finira Jamais, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Just One Kiss" (Raphael Saadiq's The Way I See It, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * Performing Live This Week at Ronnie Scott's (Jeff Beck, 2008) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Sing" (Annie Lennox's Songs of Mass Destruction, 2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Gimme Shelter" (Angélique Kidjo's Djin Djin, 2007) (Amazon | iTunes)

 (Shameless plug: That Rolling Stones cover duet with Angélique Kidjo appeared in Mental Nomad Podcast 62.)

From Angélique Kidjo's video for "Gimme Shelter."

Collaborations Cont., Redux: "Every Night About This Time" (Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino, 2007)  (Amazon | iTunes) * "Just Walk On By" (Randy Jackson's Music Club, Vol. 1, 2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * "I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me" (Dean Martin, Forever Cool, 2007) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Anniversary" (Lemar's The Truth About Love, 2006) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Erica" (Dead Celebrity Status' Blood Music, 2006) (Amazon | iTunes)

(Witty aside made solely to provide an aesthetically pleasing line break and squeeze in one more picture of the lovely lady: "Dead Celebrity Status" may be the best rock band name ever.)

Return of the Collaborations, Cont., Redux Again One More Time with a Fresh Lemon Scent: "Stir It Up" (with Patti Labelle, Chicken Little soundtrack, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Cry Baby/Piece of My Heart" (non-album single with Melissa Etheridge, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Cry Baby Cry" (Santana's All That I Am, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Love Sneakin' Up on You" (Les Paul's American Made World Played, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "When Love Comes to Town" (Herbie Hancock's Possibilities, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Family Affair" (with John Legend and Van Hunt, Different Strokes by Different Folks, 2005) (Amazon | iTunes) * "Issues" (with Mr. G and Christy Beu, Unity: The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Album) (Amazon | iTunes) * Alfie soundtrack (2004) (Amazon | iTunes)