Hard Luck Café
RACHAEL KILGOUR and
SHANNA IN A DRESS
Wednesday, November 16th at 7:00 PM
CAC & FMSH Members
$15 | Public $20
Singer-Songwriters Rachael
Kilgour and Shanna in a Dress,
both winners of the prestigious Kerrville New Folk Competition (in 2017 and
2020, respectively), will share the bill during the monthly Hard Luck Café
series that is co-presented with the Folk Music Society of Huntington in the
Cinema’s Sky Room on Wednesday, November 16, from 7-10 p.m. An open mic
precedes the concert. Tickets are $15 for Cinema Arts Centre/FMSH members and
$20 for non-members, and can be purchased online or at the Cinema Arts Centre
box office now through the evening of the event.
Rachael Kilgour
is a passionate and engaging Minnesota-born and based performing artist whose
songs merge the personal and political. Her sincere lyric-driven work has been
called both brave and humane.
“When Rachael performs, a force of nature erupts,” writes
Richard Cuccaro in an Acoustic Live! in
New York City and Beyond cover feature. “She unleashes a palpable torrent
of passion, whether singing about social justice or a searing personal revelation…
The missives from her heart will win yours.”
A 2015 grand-prize winner of the esteemed international
NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition, as well as the winner
of the 2015 LEAF Newsong Contest in North Carolina and a finalist in the
Telluride Troubadour Competition, Rachael has performed at such notable venues
as NYC’s Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and the ASCAP
Music Café during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. In 2020,
Rachael was awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board grant to focus on a
songwriting project about the life and recent death of her father. Her
delicately crafted songs explore identity, inheritance and grief in the wake of
a parent’s death.
Shanna in a Dress,
the winner of the 2022 Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Songwriter Showcase, is
your quirky best friend who refuses to wear pants. In her songs, she says what
everyone is thinking but no one else will say, and you’ll get an uncensored
journey of clever humor and heartbreak, along with a hefty side of
entertainment at her shows that are also noted for her spontaneous banter and
playful stage presence. Think Jason Mraz mixed with Ingrid Michaelson with a
twist of Phoebe Buffay from TV’s Friends all wrapped up in a sweet voice
accented primarily by guitar but also, occasionally, piano and ukulele.
Shanna started her musical career while a student at the
University of Virginia, biked across the country and fell in love with
Colorado. She recently relocated to Nashville, Tennessee after previously
living in Boulder, CO -- where she hosted a monthly Women in Song show prior to
the pandemic. A clever wordsmith, she pens smart but accessible lyrics that
have drawn accolades in recent years. Shanna released her crowd-funded debut
studio album, Robot, in May. An avid
bicyclist, she biked from Seattle to Boston last summer while music touring on
her epic ‘Tour de Dress,’ during which she played more than 60 shows from
coast-to-coast and partnered up with Pangaea World Foundation, a global
nonprofit organization.
In 2020, Shanna was named the winner of the Great River Folk
Fest Song Competition and a semifinalist in the Songwriter Serenade. She also
performed in the Grassy Hill Emerging Artist Showcase during the virtual Falcon
Ridge Folk Festival that summer.
