Dressed in a beautiful red designer ghagra choli with loads of gold embroidery work on it, a nose ring well in place, Indian bangles, large earrings, a flowery tattoo on her inner left palm and her blonde hair swinging from side to side, Joss Stone looked strikingly stunning in an Indian attire.

After her first track, Joss Stone greeted a packed Mehboob studio audience at the Mahindra Blues Festival at her first ever concert in Mumbai with a shukriya. Stone possesses the vocal range of a soprano and contralto and proved she has could stretch those vocal chords well. Backed by a keyboardist, drummer, bass guitarist and lead guitarist and two female backup singers, this was the last gig at this most sought after festival was made memorable with her presence.

The 27 year old, free-spirited, English pop, reggae, soul performer, who has been in music half her life since the age of 8, performed a one and half hour set belting songs from her latest album ‘Water for your Soul’ and a few from her past albums. Sipping dust tea in between songs, Stone spoke a bit on her new album which she stated was tuned more towards reggae, something she loved very much. “But a reggae sound at a Blues concert”, she suddenly quipped, immediately instructing her band mates to play some true blues pieces.

Performing on a day dedicated to lovers, Stone performed songs like L.O.V.E, Stuck on you, Love Me, You had me, Right to be wrong, among many others and ended the evening and the festival with the traditional Mahindra Blues All Star Jam wherein all the musicians who had performed a day earlier and on day two, came on stage for one last time. An extended version of the 1966 hit Knock on Wood got some grueling guitar riffs played by seven guitarists at one time, backed by spirited vocals from Stone and Tripti from Soulmate.

Speaking to her backstage for barely a few moments, Joscelyn Eve Stoker better known to us as Joss Stone, the gorgeously famous star had by now changed into a black floral mini skirt. Prodded on what her new album was, she told us that her new album was heavily rooted towards reggae, but when questioned why was that so, when she is more of a soul singer, she retorted saying that that the sound is based on reggae, but it also had a hosts of other styles and instruments like the Indian tabla, Bengali flute, Bansuri lute, African and Asian percussion, “I have also used the sarod a bit in the album. I try to fuse what I see, and create music that crosses cultures and those that speak about my life and my experiences. I also realized that there would not be a drastic switch for my vocals to change to a new genre, it just fitted seamlessly. “

It was when she met Damian Marley (youngest son of Bob Marley) that her love for reggae grew. "The creation of the album was a long process for what I think might have been a few years. But it was only when I met Damian and songs like 'Wake Up' and 'Underworld' came more into the reggae groove. We started writing songs and I just began to love reggae after that.”

Stone came on the scene with her debut album, “The Soul Sessions” at 16, and since then she has not looked back, switching genres from soul to reggae and a bit of blues. Today she has seven albums to her credit, including her work with the band Superheavy that had our very own A.R Rehman, Mick Jagger, Damian Marley and Dave Stewart who together released the album ‘LP1’ in 2011.

Though many who came to the two day fest were looking for the blues from Stone, many welcomed her twist of genres. She was inevitably the darling of the evening even though she was slightly out of the blues.

Text and Photos by Verus Ferreira