Loretta Lynn coming to Penn's Peak

"To make it in this business, you either have to be first, great or different," says living legend Loretta Lynn.

"And I was the first to ever go into Nashville, singin' it like the women lived it."

Lynn will be singin' it like she lived it at Penn's Peak May 12. Show time is 8 p.m.

Lynn first arrived in Nashville 55 years ago, signing her first recording contract on Feb. 1, 1960, and within a matter of weeks, she was at her first recording session.

A self-taught guitarist and songwriter, Lynn became one of the most distinctive performers in Nashville in the 1960s and 1970s, shaking things up by writing her own songs, many of which tackled boundary-pushing topics drawn from her own life experiences as a wife and mother.

In addition to being "first," she was also "great" and "different." Loretta Lynn's instantly recognizable delivery is one of the greatest voices in music history. As for "different," no songwriter has a more distinctive body of work. Like the lady herself, Lynn's songs shoot from the hip.

As millions who read her 1976 autobiography or saw its Oscar-winning 1980 film treatment are aware, Lynn is a Coal Miner's Daughter who was raised in dire poverty in a remote Appalachian Kentucky hamlet. Living in a mountain cabin with seven brothers and sisters, she was surrounded by music as a child.

She married Oliver "Doolittle" Lynn when she was only 13. "Doo" was a 21-year-old war veteran with a reputation as a hell-raiser.

When she was seven months pregnant with her first child, they moved from Appalachia to Custer, Washington.

By age 18, she had four children (two more, twins, came along in 1964). Isolated from her native culture and burdened with domestic work, she turned to music for solace.

"Most of my songs were from the women's point of view," Loretta wrote in her best-selling autobiography.

"That's who I'm singing about and singing to during my shows. And the girls know it. … Most of my fan club is women, which is how I want it."

Tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets, the Penn's Peak Box Office and Roadies Restaurant and Bar.

For more information, visit www.pennspeak.com or call 866-605-7325.