Happy New Year everybody!

Musician Birthdays Today
Bernard Sumner (New Order, Joy Division) is 53. Country singer Patty Loveless is 52. Rock singer Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) is 49. Country singer Deana Carter is 43. Rock musician Benjamin Darvill (Crash Test Dummies) is 42.

Rock Songwriter Delaney Bramlett Dies
Singer-songwriter-producer Delaney Bramlett, who penned such classic rock songs as “Let it Rain” and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton, has died. He was 69. He is perhaps best known for standards such as “Superstar,” co-written with Leon Russell, which was recorded by Usher, Luther Vandross, Bette Midler, The Carpenters and most recently, Sonic Youth, in a version featured on the Grammy-nominated soundtrack of the movie “Juno.” [Full Article]

Do You Use The “Sensitive Female Chord Progression”?
So what is the Sensitive Female Chord Progression, exactly? It’s simple enough for the music theory-inclined: vi-IV-I-V. No good? Well, for a song in the key of A minor, it would be Am-F-C-G. Still confused? Here’s an easy way to see if a song uses the chord progression: Just sing Osborne’s lyrics, “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?” over the suspect four chords. If it fits, you’ve just spotted one in the wild. Once you’re attuned to it, you’ll hear it everywhere. [Full Article]

Toby Keith Got Into Songwriting To Pick Up Girls
Toby Keith is the first to admit that he got into songwriting to pick up girls. He says when he was 15 he went over to a buddy’s house to listen to him play some songs he wrote. Keith told Esquire magazine there was “a bunch of girls sitting around just swooning.” He said he “could tell they were just average songs,” and he couldn’t understand what the girls were freaking out about. Then he realized that “it was about the act of creation.The girls thought they could see into his heart and soul,” so Keith started writing songs himself. In another section he also says he’s always “just one good idea away from a great song.” [Full Article]