S.G. Sinnicks laments the state of the union in his updated single and video Miss America 2.0 — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
Sometimes great art emerges from difficult times, either personally, socially, or politically. For Hamilton alt-folk singer-songwriter Sinnicks, the tumultuous situation south of the Canadian border is what makes Miss America 2.0 so poignant. For Sinnicks, the song is “equal parts love song and lament” from the standpoint “of a neutral observer.”
“I spent so many years playing and touring in the U.S. seeing the growing fractures in a society that is too important to fracture and the pain in my American-born wife, friends and family as it went downhill,” Sinnicks says. “The title is a bit of a play on words. Both reflecting that I miss an America that used to value things like compassion and intelligence and using an aging beauty queen in her Miss America sash for her once-beautiful country.”
Miss America 2.0, a remake of a song Sinnicks wrote and released on his 2012 album The Last Irishman In Corktown, is slower and more atmospheric than the original. Falling in a vein similar to the likes of Wilco, Tim Easton or John Prine with a mid-tempo roots seasoning throughout, Miss America 2.0 features Blue Rodeo’s Mike Boguski (piano, organ, accordion) fleshing out the track. Sinnicks’ voice and incisive lyrics shine on the single which he says “needed to be a little darker and sharper” than the previous version:
“Sometimes it’s working
Sometimes it’s blue on blue
The ones who know don’t care
The ones who care don’t seem to have a clue
It won’t be the first time
Sure as hell won’t be the last
Another malcontent or maybe just miscast
I miss America, I do.”
The musician feels the single speaks to a larger audience now in a world which survived a global pandemic but “pushed so many people who were already barely hanging on over the edge.” Sinnicks says the edgier, darker atmosphere “reflects the increasing anger and sadness we are feeling today.”
A video for Miss America 2.0, created by Peter Riddihough and starring Nora Hutchinson, was also made to visually drive home the message. “Sometimes all I can do as a humble songwriter is call it as I see it and hope the message finds a home in the hearts and minds that it was intended for,” he says. “The song is written from the point of view of the helpless observer. I’m sure any Canadian watching American politics can relate.”
Watch the video for Miss America 2.0 above, hear more from S.G. Sinnicks below, and relate to him on his website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
