Grammy Award-winning songwriter Brett James, who wrote some of the biggest country music hits of the past two decades, died Thursday in a plane crash. He was 57.

Mr. James was one of three people on board a Cirrus SR22T plane that crashed in a field in Franklin, North Carolina, on Thursday afternoon; the local Fox TV station reported the plane was registered to Mr. James. The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the crash and said it will investigate alongside the National Transportation Safety Board.

“Today we mourn the tragic loss of a Music Row giant. … He achieved heights that few songwriters in our town have ever seen,” Lee Thomas Miller, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) president, said in a statement. “He represented the Nashville songwriting community al

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