Loretta Lynn brings tour to Performing Arts Center

There are certain artists who have become so ingrained in American culture that it is difficult to imagine a time when their contributions weren't available.

Loretta Lynn, who performs tonight at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center, is just such an artist.

The country music icon signed her first recording contract in 1960, which means that she has spent nearly 52 years recording and touring.

At 76 years young, Lynn shows no signs of stopping her tours, even powering through a recent bout with pneumonia that caused her to cancel some shows last month.

Her tenacious personality stems from her upbringing in a poor coal mining community in Kentucky during the Great Depression and World War II. A strong work ethic was pretty much expected in those days.

Married at 13, Lynn's husband bought her a guitar while she was still in her early 20s. Lynn taught herself to play and never looked back.

Her life story was told in the 1980 biopic "Coal Miner's Daughter," in which Sissy Spacek portrayed Lynn, and won an Oscar in the process.

Once Lynn's country music career took off, she refused to play it safe, recording controversial songs about such subjects as birth control ("The Pill"), domestic violence ("Fist City"), repeated childbirth ("One's On the Way"), and the Vietnam War ("Dear Uncle Sam").

While those songs were lightning rods in a political sense and more than a few radio stations refused to play many of them, fans were united in their love for Lynn's music. During the 1960s, '70s and '80s, she rose to the upper echelon of country music artists.

Lynn's music was introduced to a new generation of fans in 2004 when Jack White of the popular alternative rock band White Stripes produced the album "Van Lear Rose."

That comeback album received almost universal critical praise and ended up on more than a few critic's best-of lists for the year.

Lynn toured in support of the album that year, and even made a stop at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center, where she surprised the audience by pulling CBS journalist Mike Wallace on the stage. Wallace had been traveling with Lynn while working on a story for "60 Minutes."

Last year, a group of musicians that included Miranda Lambert, Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire and Faith Hill recorded an album of Lynn covers, "Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute to Loretta Lynn," which further ensured that her music would be heard by younger listeners.

Fans who attend tonight's performance at the PAC can expect to hear music from throughout Lynn's long career, as well as a few stories about those songs.

It's not every day that one gets to see a music icon perform, especially in an intimate setting such as the PAC.