After a busy year touring her new album across the United States and Canada, singer-songwriter Rachael Kilgour is back in Duluth for Valentine’s Day. An open cynic of the romance industrial complex — known for her unflinching examination of a broken heart — Kilgour may seem like an odd choice to headline Sacred Heart Music Center’s annual Valentine’s concert.

Nevertheless, she assures listeners it makes sense.

“Love is bigger than all that anyway, isn’t it?” she said. “Sure, it’s the excitement of connecting with someone new, but it’s also about loving yourself, your friends, your family, and your neighbors. It’s in how we grieve the people we’ve lost. It’s how we make meaning of anything.”

The Duluth native emerged in the local music scene as a fiddle player in 2005, backing up Sara Thomsen and vocal group The Three Altos. Soon after she was playing solo gigs as a singer-songwriter, which led to touring as an opener and accompanist to folk rocker Catie Curtis.

Kilgour won the 2015 NewSong Music Performance & Songwriting Competition and the 2017 Kerrville New Folk Contest. Her body of work includes several demos, EPs and albums. Her most recent recording, My Father Loved Me is considered her fourth full-length studio album. Released in 2023, it is a tribute to her late father, Bob Kilgour, who died in 2017 after experiencing dementia.

Local duo EmbalmingEva opens the show at Sacred Heart, making a sonically unexpected but sentimental pairing. Creative partners and long-time friends Jesse Hatten and Galalee Wright have been making music together since childhood and writing and producing as the moody synth duo EmbalmingEva for the past two years. They’ve built an enthusiastic and loyal following in the region and released their first album in January.

Kilgour and Wright share a special connection and a long history as well.

“I had the great fortune of helping raise Gala through her early years,” said Kilgour. “I’m one of a lucky few parental figures to have loved and cheered her on and this concert feels like a very special homecoming, in a way,” Kilgour said.

Listeners can expect a night of originals, covers and collaborations along a broad and all-encompassing theme of love.

Valentine’s Day Concert
Rachael Kilgour and EmbalmingEva
Friday, Feb. 14, 7:30 p.m.
Sacred Heart Music Center
201 W. Fourth St., Duluth
Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door
Tickets available online at eventbrite.com

Cheryl Reitan is a freelance writer in Duluth.