Ontario’s S.G. Sinnicks Reimagines a Back Catalogue Song as “Miss America 2.0,” a Soulful and Earnest Reflection on the U.S. of 2024

S.G. Sinnicks is a two-time Hamilton Music Award winner (Folk Roots Record of the Year, 2009 and 2012, as well as a City of Hamilton Arts Award in 2013). He began playing drums at 11 and at 15 began to play the pubs with everyone from local artists to Canadian legend Stompin’ Tom Connors. 

Since transitioning to original songwriting in the 90’s, Sinnicks is now known across Canada and the US as a singer/songwriter in the vein of Nick Lowe or Billy Bragg with a history of dissent and telling the story with words, music and solidarity with a career that spans three decades. His activism is inseparable from his songwriting and his music reflects a deep connection to the labour movement and the plight of the working-class. 

Sinnicks’ latest track reimagines a piece from his back catalogue with a new twist, fashioning it into a modern take on the state of American politics. An earnest lament with a soulful folk/roots sound heightened by the song’s organ and subtle gospel infused backing vocals, “Miss America 2.0” is atmospheric, capturing the duality of love and grief for “a generation that just forgets to count.”

This song is a remake of a song I wrote and released on ‘The Last Irishman in Corktown’ in 2018. I spent so many years playing and touring in the US 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. Peter Riddihough understood the assignment PERFECTLY in making the new video. Nora Hutchinson performs her role with such gravitas. It really sells the metaphor of a beauty 40 years past her prime, still clinging to old standards, and old behaviours that are increasingly quaint and out of touch instead of embracing the beauty of who she is and could be RIGHT NOW.” – S.G. Sinnicks