Peter Cooper was an award-winning country music journalist and Grammy-nominated musician. A native of South Carolina, he graduated from Wofford College and helped establish the Spartanburg Music Trail. As author of the book Hub City Music Makers, he became the reigning authority of Spartanburg’s music history.

Cooper moved to Nashville in the year 2000 and became one of the nation’s premier music journalists, writing for The Tennessean newspaper and other publications. He was also senior director of the Country Music Hall of  Fame.

Cooper’s writing won the admiration of legends such as Kris Kristofferson, Emmylou Harris, and Kenny Chesney. Kristofferson said, “Peter Cooper looks at the world with an artist’s eye and a human heart and soul. His songs are the work of an original, creative imagination, alive with humor and heartbreak and irony and intelligence, with truth and beauty in the details.”

Cooper worked as a producer or studio performer with Tom T. Hall, Todd Snider, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Bobby Bare, Duane Eddy, Ricky Scaggs, Kenny Chesney, Jim Lauderdale, and many more.

He wrote texts for the Spartanburg Music Trail signs and website, and he lent his voice to the audio version of the trail.