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Savant soul singer Joss Stone recently settled in Nashville to start a family, which came as quite the change for the world-traveling nomad.

Savant soul singer Joss Stone recently settled in Nashville to start a family, which came as quite the change for the world-traveling nomad.

Critically acclaimed soul singer Joss Stone was a literal nomad a short time ago, until she slowed her roll to gather moss and start a family in Nashville.

Stone’s unexpected journey to Southern soil is intertwined with the creation of her latest work, “Never Forget My Love,” which she’ll support with a Ryman Auditorium performance Tuesday evening.

It’s an album inspired by her time with Burt Bacharach and by the music of Dusty Springfield.

“Those songs, it’s not classic soul, certainly not groove-based, but it’s so emotional. It’s so soulful because of that. I felt like it has given me an opportunity to really just breathe that into (this album),” Stone said. “It’s a deliberately crafted story. It’s not just a jam; it’s your creation. I wanted to see if I could even do that because it’s hard.”

As Stone’s musical path winded in a new direction, so did her life’s course.

In early 2020, she was splitting time between the Bahamas and Nashville while working with songwriter and producer Dave Stewart of Eurythmics.

“I didn’t live anywhere. I was just completely nomadic,” Stone said. “I was running around the world with my dog, just taking him with me everywhere, and (husband) Cody (DaLuz) was coming with me.”

That was until the spring of 2020, when Stone received news that she was pregnant.

”Since I was like 3, I’ve wanted kids. I’m like one of those little girls that ran around with a little dolly going ‘I’m gonna have lots of babies,’ “ Stone said. “Now I want to go home so badly every time I leave. I just want to get home and to be there. That’s quite cool. I like that. I like having that. I didn’t need to go home before because I didn’t have anything there.”

Before the baby arrived, the then nomadic couple would need to find a new home to go.

“We’re like, ‘We’ve gotta live somewhere. Where are we gonna live?’ “ Stone said.

Stone would reach her decision when a doctor told her the baby’s small size was due to her needing rest. Being told she was “too busy” caught her off guard.

“I said, ‘You know what? I think we should just live here. I’m just gonna get a sofa and lie down on it,’ “ Stone said matter-of-factly. “That’s literally how it happened.”

The couple purchased a Mt. Juliet home surrounded by wilderness that reminded her of the English countryside where she’d grown up.

Once settled, Stone continued writing, influenced by her simultaneous work on a forthcoming production of “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” Stone spoke on working on more dramatic music.

“I think when you let go of being like credible and cool and worrying about people thinking you’re cheesy or not serious, you kind of get past that in your life,” Stone said. “And then you don’t give a (expletive) whether they think that or not. That’s when you open up and go ‘I’m just gonna make (expletive) awesome music.’ That’s what’s came out of it.”

Letting go of convention is a concept with which Stone is well familiar.

From 2014 to 2020, Stone embarked on a journey to play a show in every country in the world.

“I believe that humans are 95% good, pure goodness, and there’s that very small 5%, it may even be 3%, of bastards that make a big splash. We get so affected by them that we feel like they’re everywhere, that people are horrible,” Stone said. “That’s not true. People are not horrible. People are naturally beautiful. That was my opinion before the world tour, and then I decided to go and prove my point.”

At each stop, she visited a charity.

In Peru, Stone found a school for the blind and deaf attended by a 5-year-old boy called Harry, who was both. It was a place she’d leave feeling conflicted.

“I just couldn’t stop thinking about Harry, because usually there’s a fix. Most of the problems in the world, there is a solution, so I have that in my mind all the time,” Stone said. “Like how can we fix this? How can we help these people?”

In Panama, Stone visited Hear the World, which helps children acquire cochlear implants. Immediately, she hoped to link the group with Harry.

“We looked for him for three years. He’d moved and there was no paperwork,” Stone remembered.

“But we found him in the end. We got them together,” Stone said with a wide smile. “If I did the world tour just for Harry, just for that one person, it was worth it, all the time, all the money, all the sleepless nights.”

On another occasion, Stone and her team slipped through the border to Syria’s contested Kurdistan region to book a show, the singer unconcerned with politics.

“I have a different attitude or approach to life and music. I don’t look at it like it’s like a flag to stand here and say, ‘I believe this thing.’ It’s just about giving good feelings,” Stone said.

Stone ended up playing at a theater, putting on a show attended by an army of internationals who were fighting Assad’s regime and ISIS.

“I see in the audience it’s full of this army, and a lot of them have their face covered because they don’t want to be caught on camera or anything,” Stone said. “It was kind of intense, but it was lovely because they had a moment of ‘ahh’ (miming relief) and they started dancing.”

After the show, Stone discovered her team had led her away from Syria proper to avoid the appearance of showing support for Assad. It was a move that went against her apolitical goals.

“A friend of mine said to me, ‘Would you go to Nazi Germany to play music?’ “ Stone said. “I said, ‘Absolutely, because guess whose fault it isn’t? It isn’t the people’s fault.”

Now settled in Nashville and expecting a second child, Stone remains firm in her human approach.

“Music allows these opportunities to happen. Music lets us communicate in places where you would never think you could communicate,” Stone said. “There’s more you can do with it than just making noise.”

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