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Garden State native Sherry Lynn is performs at Smithville’s Village Greene Music Series Saturday

By Lori Hoffman

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Aug. 19, 2009

Sherry Lynn

Country singer Sherry Lynn, who plays at Smithville’s Village Greene Country Music Series this Saturday, Aug. 22, at 5pm, has a biography that sounds like it could fuel several albums worth of country songs. Her dad was murdered when she was two and her mother raised her and her two siblings alone. Lynn had her first child when she was 17, was married by age 19 and had four kids by the time she was 23. She now has five kids ranging from age 6 to teenagers. She grew up in the one traffic light town of Clayton, N.J., as a fan of Loretta Lynn and Crystal Gayle.

She has been a single parent herself, and went from doing Gretchen Wilson songs on karaoke night as a break from the kids and her job as a waitress to recording a debut album, It’s A Woman Thing, and performing the National Anthem for a Phillies game on a night Tug McGraw threw out the first pitch. Lynn, who travels regularly from South Jersey to Nashville to keep her career on track, chatted with AC Weekly recently.

When did you think you could do it for a living?
I started doing it with the karaoke. I had friends that pulled my teeth to get me out there. I was always nervous about going up and singing by myself. When I finale got the nerve to go up and sing, people would come to me and tell me ‘you should record something.’ People asked me to record songs for them. I got to the point where I said, ‘Maybe I should really try to do this.’

So how can you do this with five kids?
It was always my dream as a little girl, singing at the Grand ‘Ol Opry. When I had my daughter, it was, ‘Okay, that dream’s done.’ Then when she was three, I had three kids, bang, bang, bang. Then I was divorced and after that I got the strength inside of me. If I put my mind to this I can really do it. I have so much family support, which really helps.

How did you get the opportunity to record an album?
I met Rich Kurtz and he has a studio in Galloway and we started recording songs together. I met some other songwriters and we started collaborating together and I was introduced to Ted Hewitt in Nashville [Rodney Atkins’ producer]. He told to record in Nashville because they take you more seriously if you are here. So I did.

What was it like singing the National Anthem at a Phillies game with Tim McGraw in the house?
Oh, let me tell you. Milt Thompson [the Phillies pitching coach] is a family friend and he dropped by and told me they needed a National Anthem singer for the next night. It was when I was doing the sound check that I was asked, ‘Did you know that Tim McGraw was throwing out the first pitch?’ Not that I wasn’t nervous enough with a 45,000 sold-out crowd. I focused on the camera guy and it was like nobody else was there.