Music journalist Peter Cooper has died

Revered Nashville music journalist and singer-songwriter Peter Cooper has died after suffering a head injury from a fall.

Cooper had been a leader with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum since 2014, following more than a decade at The Tennessean. As one of the nation’s most respected country music journalists, he profiled everyone from Johnny Cash to Taylor Swift with incisive, heartfelt and amusingly droll writing. Among his greatest works were the authoritative obituaries of country music legends and profiles of underappreciated performers.

His work also filled the liner notes for record releases and appeared in national magazines. And he was a lecturer at Vanderbilt University.

As a singer-songwriter, Cooper was Grammy-nominated, and the reverence he showed when writing about elders, like Tom T. Hall and Mac Wiseman, led him to befriend and work with them on late-career projects.

In a statement, the museum describes Cooper as a beloved colleague who brought “poetic grace” to the programs, exhibits and podcasts he developed.

Cooper was 52 years old.