Celebrating her 80th birthday this year and still going strong, Toni Lynn Washington will be celebrating "A Life in the Blues" with a concert featuring Paul Speidel and Friends on Saturday, April 8, 7:30 p.m. at the Newton City Hall War Memorial Auditorium, in Newton Centre. With four CDs under her belt and music used in feature film soundtracks, Washington was eventually nominated for two W.C. Handy Awards, two Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year Awards, and six Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year Awards—which she finally won this past year at the 37th Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards in Memphis.  She is also the recipient of the Boston Blues Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award.  Her fifth CD, “I Wanna Dance” came out last year, and features material she will be presenting at the Life in the Blues concert in Newton.

The concert is all-ages and handicap-accessible.  For more information call 617-796-1540.  

This program is part of the Newton Festival of the Arts, sponsored by the Mayor’s Office for Cultural Affairs, and is supported in part by a grant from the Newton Cultural Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.