As previously reported , Jenkins took to Twitter last month to let fans know he would be undergoing surgery to replace his aorta and aortic valve after he was hospitalized with heart issues. He experienced complications during the Feb. 21 surgery and never recovered.

A representative from TriStar Centennial Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, where Jenkins underwent the surgery on Feb. 21, confirmed for The Oklahoman that the popular musician had died.

Tulsa native Brandon Jenkins, one of the standout singer-songwriters on the red dirt music scene, died today after complications from a heart operation. He was 48.

Affectionately known as the “Red Dirt Legend,” Jenkins was a popular fixture in red dirt music. As previously reported, his Oklahoma music roots actually were planted deep in the Tulsa Sound era: His uncle was Gordon Shyrock, a bassist and sound engineer who worked with JJ Cale and Leon Russell and migrated with them to California, where he won three Grammys working as an engineer and producer for a wide range of artists, from Andrae Crouch and Elvis Presley to Natalie Cole and Dwight Yoakam.

“The red dirt sound, I kind of got more in that scene when I went to college (at Oklahoma State University), but just because of my family, I was fully immersed in the Tulsa Sound,” Jenkins told me in a 2015 interview. “I've traveled all over the world, and people know about Oklahoma music. It's well-respected everywhere you go — even in Texas.”

Along with Cody Canada, Jason Boland, Mike McClure and Stoney LaRue, Jenkins followed in the footsteps of red dirt pioneers like Bob Childers, Tom Skinner and the Red Dirt Rangers when he got to OSU and help popularize the musical mix of country, folk and rock in Stillwater and beyond.

After living for many years in Austin, Texas, Jenkins moved two years ago to Nashville to tap into the songwriter community in Music City.