NASHVILLE, Tenn., October 14, 2014 – Veteran Nashville journalist and longtime Tennessean reporter Peter Cooper will join the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum as museum editor, effective November 10. 

“We’re longtime admirers of Peter’s contributions to The Tennessean and his projects within the Nashville music community.” said Kyle Young, museum director, “We look forward to adding his expertise, ideas, and wit to our brain trust. He joins a vital intellectual team here that is the soul of the museum and includes Mick Buck, Jay Orr, Dr. John Rumble, Michael McCall, and Michael Gray.”

Peter Cooper is one of the nation’s most respected country music journalists. As a reporter for the Tennessean since 2000, he has written about music and musicians, profiling notables from Johnny Cash to Taylor Swift, and winning numerous awards along the way. His work has also appeared in Esquire, Oxford American, Mix and American Songwriter magazines, and in liner notes for albums from Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Cowboy Jack Clement, Ronnie Milsap and Mac Wiseman. He wrote the inscription on George Jones’ tombstone.

Cooper is also a Grammy-nominated producer and a singer-songwriter with accolades in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone and many other outlets. As a musician, he has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, A Prairie Home Companion, The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman. He has worked on stage or in the studio with Country Music Hall of Famers Bobby Bare, Vince Gill, Tom T. Hall, Emmylou Harris and Mac Wiseman, . His latest production (with Thomm Jutz) is Wiseman’s widely acclaimed album Songs from My Mother’s Hand.

A senior lecturer at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, Cooper teaches a course on the History of Country Music, educating Vanderbilt scholars about the music’s treasured artists and instruments and its place in American culture.

“The staff at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is devoted to preserving and illuminating great music,” Cooper says. “I’m thrilled to join in that mission.”

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is operated by the Country Music Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization chartered by the state of Tennessee in 1964. The museum’s mission is the preservation of the history of country and related vernacular music rooted in southern culture. With the same educational mission, the foundation also operates CMF Records, the museum’s Frist Library and Archive, CMF Press, Historic RCA Studio B and Hatch Show Print®. More information about the Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is available at countrymusichalloffame.org or by calling (615) 416-2001.