Loretta Lynn celebrates birthday at Ryman Auditorium

At her 85th birthday celebration on Friday night, Loretta Lynn wanted to set something straight. “I ain’t but 26,” she deadpanned in front of a sold-out Ryman Auditorium crowd. Then she added, “I can work any 26-year-old girl under the table any time,” as the audience cheered.

She’s not wrong.

For more than 50 years, Lynn has been one of country music’s pillars. Her feisty attitude and forthright songs (some of which were banned from country radio when they were released) are some of the genre’s most enduring, and continue to influence artists.

At Friday’s show, the first performance of her two-night Ryman run, Lynn proved why she’s country music’s grande dame.

After being escorted to a chair at center stage by daughter Patsy Lynn Russell, Lynn – resplendent in a blue gown – and her seven-piece backing band launched into “They Don’t Make 'Em Like My Daddy.”

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For the next 90 minutes, the legend delivered one hit after another. She played her first single, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl” (released in early 1960), and her latest, “Wouldn’t It Be Great,” the title track of her next album, which is due out in August. “I might not know all the words,” Lynn said before starting the latter, “but I’ll give it a dadgum good try.”

It was the first time Lynn and her band had played the song in public, and the performance was buoyed by cheers from the pews. “I should learn it before I sing it,” she remarked partway through the song. Nevertheless, her efforts earned her a standing ovation, one of several she received over the course of the evening.

As the set progressed, things got a little looser. When Lynn invited her sisters Crystal Gayle and Peggy Sue onstage to sing with her, some of the songs dissolved into giggles by the second verse, as Gayle admitted the trio hadn’t rehearsed. A couple songs (“Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ ” and Hank Williams’ “I Saw the Light”) were repeated during the show, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind, welcoming the chance to sing along with their favorites once more.

At the end of the night, singer-songwriter Shawn Camp, who opened the show with a short, but solid set, returned to the stage to sing with the woman he calls “Miss Loretta.” The two have been writing together for several years; onstage, their easy rapport and affection for one another was obvious.

“There’s lots of phonies out there acting like singers, but you ain’t one of them,” Camp told Lynn before she kicked into “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” her signature song. “You’re real.”

Country fans wouldn’t want her any other way.