Suzie Brown

Bluesy, folky, achy, sweet-voiced Suzie Brown. A practicing cardiologist pursuing a career in singing (her own songs) and playing the guitar, she's part Emmylou Harris, part Allison Krauss, and totally worth seeing.... - Philadelphia Magazine

A cardiologist who turned to singing and songwriting just a few short years ago, Suzie Brown has made quite an impact and you can see just why when listening to this her second album. The songs, all self-penned, are top-drawer. The recording, which was produced at Nashville’s famed Sound Emporium is also first class. The songs are very much like pages from her life and cover joy, fears, optimism and vulnerability..An absorbing listening experience from start to finish. - Maverick Magazine

About the song 28 Days, from 'Almost There': "This hauntingly beautiful ballad is surrounded on the album by a nice mix of catchy country pop songs that will get your feet tapping and body moving. But don't get too happy. Sweet and sadly delicate sentiments make an appearance as well, in a good way, of course. - Guitar World

"Her songs showcase her smooth fingerpicking and clear voice. Some are ballads with a dash of country twang, offset by the texture of lush chords." - Philadelphia Inquirer

"Suzie Brown is a cardiologist AND a beautiful singer/songwriter. . .

But what I find truly inspiring about her is that after Harvard Medical School she had the courage and the self understanding to realize she didn’t need to play just one role in this life: cardiologist. She knew she didn’t have to stay in 'one box.'" - Lu Ann Cahn, Host, NBC 10! Show

"Heartstrings (Freshie) doesn't sound like the work of someone so green. It's twangier than Brown's Montreal-via-Boston upbringing would suggest and more polished than her 2009 EP, with a flash of sass on "Nice Girl" and a slow burn on "Lonesome Moon." The title track has a Patsy Cline feel and a double meaning: It's a portrait of romantic yearning and a nod to her part-time job as a cardiologist." - Philadelphia City Paper

The cardiologist turned singer-songwriter shines with heart-filled vocals on an album full of rootsy, laidback tracks. Brown beds down in the folk tradition on the 11-song collection, which spans from tender to bluesy to full of cheer....You will want to spin this while you are dancing in the kitchen and trying not to burn the pancakes - The Equal Ground

"When it comes to MAGNET’s home base of Philadelphia, we’ve always been a little biased. But that’s not why we’re so excited about Philly musician Suzie Brown. Aside from being a first-rate singer/songwriter (no small feat), she is a Harvard-educated cardiologist with a master’s degree in translational research from the University of Pennsylvania who has also studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music and sang in an a cappella group while an undergrad at Dartmouth. (Feeling kind of like a loser in comparison yet? We are. Like most of Philadelphia, we went to Temple.)" - Magnet Magazine

"(Almost There) sounds like the sun-soaked product of a front porch jam session." - American Songwriter Magazine

Suzie Brown's latest album, "Almost There," gets its power from the tension between its catchy country-pop melodies and its unsatisfied alt-folk lyrics. Bridging the two halves are Brown's charming soprano and Oliver Wood's smart production. - Geoffrey Himes, music critic for The Washington Post

Nashville’s Suzie Brown is a name you’re most likely at least a bit familiar with. She’s a singer, songwriter, Harvard-educated cardiologist, mother, and, until recently, a fellow-215er… I think she also fights crime at night… actually, I don’t think I’m supposed to mention that… - Philthy Mag

Suzie Brown brings a beautiful voice and genre-mixing prowess to Almost There...Brown’s unadorned, beautiful alto voice helps keep consistency throughout the diversity of the album. Brown feels completely at home in her voice, having found a range and a melodic style that serve her well. She clearly has worked hard on songwriting, and she sounds natural in the songs she has written. It’s a hard thing to do, but Brown has accomplished it well...Brown has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, which is why Almost There is so delightful. There’s plenty going on in each track and throughout the album, but the album never feels disjointed. If you’re a fan of Laura Stevenson, Laura Marling, Laura Veirs, or female singer/songwriters in general, you should check out Suzie Brown. - Independent Clauses

Music is a great outlet for folks in stressful jobs, but it rarely survives outside of a garage or home studio. Singer-songwriter Suzie Brown is a wonderful exception. During the day, she is a cardiologist specializing in heart transplants and heart failure, on top of helping raise two kids. On evenings and weekends, she turns her attention to her artistic endeavors, which yielded this, her sixth full-length of lived in and lucid Americana. Brown’s songs mine the various facets of her life as she juggles her homebound responsibilities and dual careers as well as she can, owning up to the reality that she drops the occasional ball. But there’s a steely determination in songs like “Masterpiece” and “Waiting on the Call” that acknowledges her exhaustion but doesn’t let it define her. The grounding element is Brown’s voice. It’s earthy and twangy enough to fit well into her chosen genre yet colored with a sweetness that keeps her sometimes downcast tunes from feeling like a heavy burden. She means it when she sings, “Sometimes I wanna scream like a three-year-old child/Stomp my feet, throw all my things in a messy pile,” well aware of the strange almost blissful glow that comes from such an outburst. - Paste Magazine

Suzie Brown is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter. That is, when she’s not at her day job as a cardiologist at Vanderbilt. Brown will release a new album, Under The Surface, on July 26th, and is premiering its third single, “Don’t Miss Too Much,” below.

In “Don’t Miss Too Much,” Brown writes to her children about the fear she feels as a mother. The meticulous skills necessary for surgery are present in her music, too. Brown’s attention to detail in her lyrics and arrangements make for an immersive, emotive listen.

“I always knew how much I would love my kids,” Brown says. “I love them so much I could practically eat them. What I never expected from motherhood is how much they love me back. It brings me so much joy, but it also terrifies me. At work I see a lot of bad things happening to good young people, and I can’t help but put myself in their position and picture how my daughters would react if something bad were to happen to me. I would never want my passing to stop them from enjoying every minute of their life they can. So I wrote them this song, to tell them: don’t miss too much missing me.”

Listen “Don’t Miss Too Much” below. - American Songwriter Magazine

Bifurcation in and of itself isn’t a rarity, but Suzie Brown’s story is a head-turner. Working as a part-time cardiologist at Nashville’s Vanderbilt, the singer-songwriter pursues a career in folk artistry during her off-time. The result of Brown’s committal to folk music during her weeks away from cardiology settles itself into the warm roots of Under the Surface, due out on 26 July. Ahead of the full album release, she is premiering “I Choose You” with For Folk’s Sake — the single drops this Friday, the 12th.

On “I Choose You”, Brown says… “People always ask me if I write songs about being a doctor. In some ways, this is the closest I’ve come. I see so many bad things happening to good people and I always think how unfair it is – how they didn’t choose to get sick. They didn’t choose to die. It applies to so many other situations as well – the horrible refugee crises – those people don’t choose to be born where they were born. People don’t choose their parents. When it comes down to it, there are very few things we can choose. But we can choose our partners. One day, after a particularly rough day, I came home and saw my husband’s face and it really hit me – ‘I choose you. That’s one thing I do get to choose, and I choose you.'”

Regarding the full album, she states, “This album was born as I was emerging from the fog of having young children. I felt so starved of my creative side. My first songs were all about heartache, and then I wrote a bunch of love songs. My last album was one primarily focused on family life, so when I started writing Under the Surface, I had already covered all that ground. I found myself digging even deeper to write about real life. This album is me, under the surface.” - For Folk's Sake

Here’s an infectious ballad from cardiologist turned singer/songwriter Suzie Brown. It’s “Under The Surface.” With more than one nod to classic songwriters like Carole King and Carly Simon, Brown spins a tap-on-the-shoulder reminder that all is not as it seems. The song is the title track from her upcoming release due out July 26.

Brown shares, “It’s so easy to get sucked into the illusion everyone else’s life is picture perfect, especially now in the age of social media. How many times has each of us looked at someone else and wondered why our own life doesn’t measure up, only to realize later that that person was secretly falling apart? This song is a reminder that you really never know what’s going on just under the surface.”

A 1970s-inspired folk-pop songwriter, Suzie Brown has chased her unique muse for a decade, making modern-day roots music that nods to the soul singers, heartland rockers and blues artists who came before her. Gluing the sound together is the unforced voice and honest, autobiographical songwriting of a Renaissance woman who’s not only an acclaimed musician, but also a part-time cardiologist and full-time mother.

Brown digs deep into her personal life with her sixth album, Under the Surface. It’s an honest record that finds her fronting a full-sized band, with layers of Telecaster twang, Southern soul and swirling keyboards underscoring her autobiographical songs about mortality, money, motherhood and friendship.

Written during the fleeting moments of free time between her shifts as an Advanced Heart Failure/Heart Transplant cardiologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and her never-ending duties as a mother of two, the record finds her peeling back the surface to stunning results, receiving nods from the NewSong Music Competition, the Great American Songwriting Competition and the International Acoustic Music Awards along the way.

“You have no idea what’s beneath the surface of people around you,” she explains. “This album is me under the surface. It’s an honest picture of what my life is like now.”

For Brown, life began up north. Born in Montreal and raised in Boston, she spent time at Harvard Medical School and The University of Pennsylvania during her 20s and 30s, earning medical degrees while also nursing a growing need to create her own music. She began balancing those two passions, first in Philadelphia — where she released her first three albums — and later in Nashville, where she began building a family with husband Scot Sax and their two daughters. Releasing after a brief break from the limelight, Under the Surface finds Brown hitting a high-water mark of creativity, working alongside producer Billy Harvey and a band of top-tier instrumentalists to create her most timeless album to date. - Parade Magazine

Feelings are never wrong. It’s OK to feel whatever you’re feeling right now in this moment. From the sunniest of days to the most ravaging of thunderstorms, human beings are bestowed with the capacity to feel every possible shade of emotion, for better or worse. Often times, it’s a weary headspace born out of overwhelming sadness and a most basic desire to be loved and wanted. Nashville indie-folk singer-songwriter Suzie Brown, who also does tremendous work as a cardiologist, offers up a gentle, compassionate reminder to let your feelings flow as a fountain out of the mountaintop. With new single “C’mon Rain,” premiering today, a weeping mid-tempo co-written with Hillary McBride and Robby Hecht (Caroline Spence, The Steel Wheels), she urges the listener to lean into the flood as best they can. “I can see sky turn gray through my bedroom window / It’s heavy / I’m ready to let it all go, gonna let it all go,” she swings open her emotional flood gates with one sharp, plainspoken lyric.

The drums roll in like thunder claps, sending a cascade of lightning through her bones, and the song swells to mirror the oncoming downpour. Brown, a voice hanging by a thread, plants herself smack dap in its path and readies for impact. “Don’t tell me that it’s gonna be ok, that it happens for a reason / This sadness is my sadness / It belongs to me,” she sings, deflecting the many worn out platitudes hurled from onlookers. The two-ton weight crushing her shoulder blades doesn’t care. “You can’t tie it up with a pretty bow / All the old cliches you know / Can’t keep me dry when I just wanna finally let it fall,” she continues to allow her body to drain any and all emotions right onto the record. Considering today’s social climate around mental health, Brown’s performance is an exceptionally warm and moving contribution to readjusting what it means to be afflicted with misery and self-loathing.

On the song, Brown writes to B-Sides & Badlands over email, “When I’ve felt the saddest, I have taken so much comfort in having permission be as sad as I am. The last thing I’ve wanted is for someone to ‘look on the bright side’ (which only serves to invalidate how I’m feeling). This song is for all of us in our dark moments, to just let us be, no apologies needed,” she says.

Known for her gutting sensitivity and lush songwriting skill, Brown has recorded and released several solo studio albums, including 2017’s Sometimes Your Dreams Find You, a culmination of her move to Nashville and uncovering new layers to her craft. Together with her husband and fellow music maker Scot Sax, she’s also issued Our Album Doesn’t Like You Either in 2015 and toured the country quite relentlessly. Throughout each stage of her work, comfortably situated between traditional folk and pop music, the flourishing Boston-raised artist uncorks various conversation pieces on living, loving, laughing and losing. - B-sides and Badlands