Written by: Alex Green

The charismatic singer/songwriter Greg Trooper has died.

The New Jersey-born musician had been battling pancreatic cancer and died two days after his 61st birthday.

Inspired by the Greenwich Village folk scene of the mid-’70s, Trooper graduated from the University of Kansas and headed back to New York, where he formed The Greg Trooper Band. His CBS publishing deal helped his songs find their way into the hands of everyone from Steve Earle to Vince Gill. Earle recorded “Little Sister” while Gill put his stamp on “We Won’t Dance.”

In the liner notes to Trooper’s 2003 record Floating, Steve Earle wrote: “I met Troop at the Lone Star Café in New York in the summer of 1986.  I was hammered when I got there and in even worse shape when I left.  When I came to on an airplane halfway back to Nashville the next day, the only thing I could remember was one amazing song call ‘Little Sister.’  I never forgot it….(It) was ‘Little Sister’ that made me jealous.  I learned it and I sang it for audiences and sometimes while I was up there singin’ it I would pretend, just for that three minutes, mind you, that I’d written it myself.”

Trooper’s songs were also covered by Robert Earl Keen and Billy Bragg.

A literate writer with a warm voice and a penchant for compelling narratives, Trooper’s compositions were so emotionally exact, so perfectly set on the faultline of the human heart, he evoked Bob Dylan as much as he did Raymond Carver.

Trooper is survived by his wife and his son.