Joss Stone Performs Stirring New Song ‘Walk With Me’ on ‘Colbert’

U.K. singer Joss Stone performed her new song, “Walk With Me,” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Monday, January 11th.

The track is a classic soul number centered around a simple drum shuffle and tender guitar line. The arrangement put the vocals of Stone and her three stellar back-up singers front-and-center, as they delivered the song’s uplifting message of equality and perseverance: “Walk with me/A time of love is so close at hand/Come together, people, united we stand/Side by side, step by step/Walk with me.”

Stone released “Walk With Me” back in December. Co-written and co-produced with long-time collaborator Jonathan Shorten, the track began as a love song, but Stone was compelled to rewrite it to reflect the tumultuous events of 2020.

“When we got to working on it so much had happened that I couldn’t take my mind off,” she said in a release at the time. “With the pandemic and what happened with George Floyd that unfortunately sparked so much violence it got me thinking that the problem is mostly with the ‘us and them’ attitude. That is the biggest killer — separation and judgment. Everyone needs to come together in order to survive this life in peace. Without togetherness nothing is OK.”

“Walk With Me” marks Stone’s first proper solo single since 2017’s “Oceans.” Last year she also participated in a collaborative charity cover of Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me” to support workers of Britain’s National Health Service.