‘DEEP, CLEAR, SOULFUL’

Saturday night’s festival headliner is Toni Lynn Washington, a well-traveled New Orleans native whose c.v. includes a pop-chart hit in 1965; USO tours of Vietnam during the war; a long stretch away from recording and performing; and a career revival in the mid-’90s that won her the moniker “Queen of the Boston Blues." OK, so that may not sound like a hotly contested throne. But even as a 69-year-old great-grandmother, Washington still draws comparisons Nina Simone, Ruth Brown and even Tony Bennett for what one writer called her “deep, clear, soulful tones.”

Here’s what our friend David Pulizzi, a writer for Jazziz magazine, had to say about her 2003 record, “Been So Long:” “Nearly 40 years ago, Toni Lynn Washington had a minor hit on the pop charts with her self-penned doo-wop ditty ‘Dear Diary.’ Subsequently she toured the Southern chitlin circuit with the likes of Jackie Wilson and Sam and Dave…”

Check out the rest of David’s review. Then go catch the show. Toni Lynn and her band command the Marina stage Saturday starting at 8:30p.