Country singer-songwriter Greg Trooper died on Sunday (Jan. 15). Nashville's Tennessean reports that Trooper passed just two days after he turned 61.

Trooper was best known for his songwriting, having penned tracks for some of country music's biggest stars, including Vince Gill, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Bragg and Steve Earl, but he also released 13 albums as an artist himself. His most recent project, Live at the Rock Room, was released in 2015, shortly before he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Trooper was born in Neptune, N.J., on Jan. 13, 1956. In the 1970s, the singer started spending times at folk clubs in Greenwich Village, eventually making his way to Austin, Texas, and Lawrence, Kan., before winding up in New York City in the 1980s. The Greg Trooper Band released their first album, We Won't Dance, in 1986; three years later, Gill recorded that record's title track and included it on 1989's When I Call Your Name.

In the mid-1990s, Trooper moved to Nashville, where he recorded more music. He spent a lot of time on the road while based in Music City, and finally moved back to Brooklyn in 2008. Trooper took a short break from the road after being diagnosed with cancer in 2015, but he returned to music soon after, telling HeraldScotland.com that it "helped [him] to feel normal ... There's an enormous amount of comfort in being able to play music."

Funeral arrangements for Trooper have not yet been shared.

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