It’s been three years and four days since Donald Trump was sworn into office. Uncoincidentally, it has been three years and three days since women protested worldwide in the 2017 Women’s March. It was the largest single-day protest in America’s history, demanding that their new president recognize and respect women’s right as human rights. Regardless of how effective those protests may or may not have been, it did result in KINLEY writing the song “Washington,” and now, three years later, she’s releasing a new and re-worked version.
“After attending the Womens’ March in Charlottetown on January 21, 2017, a friend of the family told me I should go write about what we saw,” explains KINLEY. “I went home and watched hours of live footage from the Womens’ March in Washington happening the same day. I wrote this song to do my part in the fight for equality. It’s time that women finally rise up together and be heard and act however they want, not how someone tells them to act. Love conquers!”
“I entered and won the Women’s Freedom Song Contest, an international songwriting contest to ‘find the next female anthem’. I recorded this song on an album with Dennis Ellsworth called, Everyone Needs to Chill Out. My mom always said more people should hear this song so I recorded it again, with a different feel.”
Produced by Colin Buchanan (Paper Lions), the new version of the song ditches the Patti Griffin-esque guitar for something a little dreamier, and certainly more in-line with KINLEY’s solo-style. It’s rather gentle, in terms of protests songs, putting the emphasis on a strong message that resonates with empowerment, rather than any gratuitous call for pitchforks and torches.
Just in time for the impeachment. Maybe the next march can be a parade.
KINLEY’s self-titled sophomore studio album is being released on February 21, 2020 and will also include the previously released tracks “Lightworkers” and “Run With You.”