Teenager Stone has an old soul

ATLANTA - Joss Stone looks as if she should be giving Britney Spears some competition, but she sounds as if she has Aretha Franklin in her sights.

In fact, it was a TV commercial for one of the Queen of Soul’s greatest-hits CDs that made her start seriously considering music. It also was her performance of the Franklin classic “(You Make Me Feel Like a) Natural Woman” that earned her a place on “Star for a Night,”a British precursor to “American Idol.”

She won with a version of disco queen Donna Summer’s “On the Radio.” Then the Boilerhouse Boys producers saw her, and soon the singer born Joscelyn Stoker was on her way to New York to sign with S-Curve Records.

“In a way,” Miss Stone told People magazine, “soul found me.”

Then, one could say, it did some remarkable nurturing. Her label sent her to Miami to write with R&B’s legendary “Clean Up Woman,” Betty Wright. The plan was to create an album of original work, but when the producers heard what Miss Stone could do with Carla Thomas’ “I’ve Fallen in Love With You,” they skipped to Plan B: cover music from comparable artists such as the Isley Brothers (“For the Love of You”) and, of course, Miss Franklin (“All the King’s Horses”).

The result is “The Soul Sessions,” the bulk of which was recorded in four days with ’70s musicians.

It’s not the usual formula for getting airplay in 2004, but neither was Norah Jones’ debut. In very much the same way — slowly, surely and initially by word of mouth — Miss Stone’s September release is building a following.

To her credit, the throaty, powerful singer did not have to resort to oft-used arm theatrics (think Mariah Carey) to deliver the Gladys Knight tunes she sang on the recent VH1 special “Divas Live.”

“Joss Stone is great,” says Patti LaBelle, also featured on “Divas.” “It’s unbelievable that she’s only 17 years old and already has this amazing voice.”

Miss Stone isn’t an unqualified star — yet. As Alan Light, editor of Tracks magazine, points out, “Soul Sessions” was about “re-creating a certain mood, a certain sound. This isn’t the thing that’s going to be her 3-million-seller. This is her calling card, the setup, until she comes back for real in the fall.”

For that full-fledged introduction, Miss Stone may want to look to the similarly preternaturally mature Christina Aguilera.

Only for song selection, though. For everything else, Miss Franklin should still do just fine.