Country music singer-songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, whom Willie Nelson once called “the greatest living songwriter,” died Wednesday at the age of 81.

His friend Connie Nelson said he died Wednesday in his native Texas following a stroke.

Shaver rose to acclaim in 1973 with his debut album, “Old Five and Dimers Like Me,” and was often referred to as part of the “outlaw country” movement of the 1970s along with figures like Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings,