Ohio-born indie rock singer and songwriter Jason Molina of the bands Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. died Saturday at age 39 after a long battle with alcoholism, his record label announced.

"Jason is the cornerstone of Secretly Canadian," read a statement issued Monday by the Bloomington, Ind.,-based label. "Without him there would be no us -- plain and simple. His singular, stirring body of work is the foundation upon which all else has been constructed. After hearing and falling in love with the mysterious voice on his debut single 'Soul' in early 1996, we approached him about releasing a single on our newly formed label. For some reason he said yes."

Early recordings by Molina were released under the name Songs: Ohia, and then he switched to the name Magnolia Electric Co. after his album of the same name in 2003.

The label's statement, which attributed his death to natural causes, noted that starting in 1997, "He toured the world every year until he had to stop in 2009 to deal with severe alcoholism. Jason was incredibly humbled by his fans' support through the years and said that the two most important words he could ever say are 'Thank you.'"

Jason Molina passed away on Saturday. He was an awesomely talented musician. He was one of the first people I met at Oberlin. Which was lucky for me because he had a way of making you feel welcome whenever you saw him. He made up a silly song about Mac and Cheese (a staple of our poor student diet) that I still sing to my kids. I haven’t seen him in a decade but it makes me so sad that his gone. If you never have you should listen to his music. http://pitchfork.com/news/50000-rip-jason-Molina/