Suzanne Gorman Brings A Little Bit of Country and Positivity to Burlap and Bean

NEWTOWN SQUARE—As a child, Suzanne Gorman's first passion was riding horses, until around the age of 7 she was diagnosed with a spinal infection. Dreams of going to equestrian championships quickly faded, but during her recovery she discovered music was medicine.

Not only did she begin to use music to heal emotionally, but also guitar was good therapy for her hand. Since then, she has used music as a way to heal and inspire others. On Friday, Sept. 23, Gorman graced the stage of Newtown Square's with her pop-country melodies and motivational lyrics.

"I consider myself a writer to which I have the freedom to write what I wish. That is the beauty of being a 'songwriter'–to create a song that speaks the honesty of it all," explained Gorman. "A song tells no lies. The beautiful part of writing a country song is, one, that it will never die. Secondly, it tells a story."

Gorman's album Open Book was developed to project Gorman's personality and to give a "positive attitude" in the music, especially to women. When the producer met her, he said her personality was "positively contagious."

She began vigorously writing songs and "learning the art without an agenda." She eagerly learned the art of the songwriting process and maintained her infectious positivity throughout.

"It did not take me long to find my way through the writing process, but it takes a lot to create a solid basis for people to honor and appreciate you in the thick of it all," said Gorman. "To be credible is to have a continual wave of 'moving forward' to develop the path needed to be successful, and to have the actual innate ability to write a song people will listen to and remember as a result. That is key."

Her lyrics show every side of the picture. One particular song, "Heartbreaker," is about how hard it sometimes can be the one who has to break it off. "Somebody needs to be the heartbreaker," she sings. The song tells how someone in the relationship needs to be the tough one to make the first move in order to make a change.

Gorman enchanted the audience. Throughout the set, she invited friends and musicians to join her. Gorman has the stage presence of a lounge act that knows the way to keep an audience by lassoing them in with exactly what they want to hear.

She shared a few of her original songs as well as covers like the popular song "Need You Now," by Lady Antebellum. She also sang "Landslide" by the Dixie Chicks, which Gorman told the audience was one of her absolute favorite songs.

As she pulled the audience in closer, she shared a story about a recent weekend in the Hamptons. She was there for a funeral, but gave the story a funny twist. At dinner one evening she saw Calvin Klein. Her daughter is in the fashion industry and Gorman's motherly instincts kicked in. She joked about how she was going to get Klein to hire her daughter.

At one point in the evening Gorman admitted her backing keyboardist and guitarist hadn't played together too often. They were still fairly new at performing live, but the perfect harmonies between the musicians told a different story.

After a very solid set, fans did not want Gorman to leave the stage. For a moment, and for the first time that evening, Gorman was at a loss for words. For an impromptu encore, she included two repeated songs from earlier that evening. The crowd loved hearing them again and again.