After 30 years of ferry service on the Mississippi River, for its 31st summer, MetroLINK is bringing live music to the river with Channel Cat Sessions, a series of pop-up performances aboard the Channel Cat Water Taxi. Now, they are inviting the community to help shape the lineup.
MetroLINK in late March sought applications for solo, acoustic artists to perform on board (six sessions total); they received 70 submissions and selected eight finalists. They are seeking the public’s opinion on which three artists will perform this summer, on two, two-hour stretches apiece (the boats have a 49-person capacity and a round-trip usually takes 65 minutes).
As a thank you for voting, people who participated will be entered into a drawing and one voter will win six free Channel Cat tickets.
“We just had a staff member bring it to our attention and says, 'Hey, what do you think about maybe doing some live music on the Channel Cat?'," MetroLINK chief of staff Jennifer Hirsch said Friday. “We were really surprised with the amount of submissions we got. So we got about 70 submissions from folks who are interested in being a part of this.
"We have essentially internally chosen eight of what I call the top finalists. And then we're asking the community and the public to help choose the final three who will be giving live performances on the boat this summer.," she said. "So each performer will have two opportunities to play on the boat while it is actually in service.”
You can submit your vote for one of the finalists (all QC area musicians) below:
• Eva Kendall
• Angela Meyer
• Marty Garrett Music
• Mo Carter
• Adrian Guerra
• Kaiden Leezer
• Jacob Hemenway Music
• Kyle Eddy (creates music under the name Detuned Gloom and Tunnel Trash)
Vote once per day through May 7. Each vote earns an entry to win six tickets to ride the Channel Cat.
Eva Kendall, one finalist, is a 14-year-old singer-songwriter with a passion for both original music and dynamic covers. Influenced by artists ranging from Queen to local favorites like Levi Craft and Alexandra Axup. Eva has developed a style shaped by both global and hometown legends. She has performed at venues including The Rust Belt, The Redstone Room, Raccoon Motel, and Kavanaugh’s Hilltop, where a St. Patrick’s Day performance solidified her love for the stage, according to her bio.
While the water taxi attracted 44,000 total riders in 2025, the live music will only be featured on 12 round-trip rides altogether this summer. The selected artists will each perform two live sessions over two hours:
- June Performances
Thursday, June 18 | 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Sunday, June 21 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. - July Performances
Thursday, July 16 | 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Sunday, July 19 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m. - August Performances
Thursday, August 13 | 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Sunday, August 16 | 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Exact artist assignments will be announced following the voting period. Hirsch said they wanted to limit live music to test it out as a pilot program.
“This is very new for us. We're trying it out to see what the response is, if it's effective, if it's popular,” she said. “And then looking at next year, how could we refine it in the future just to make it even perhaps bigger or better moving forward. But for now we wanted to really focus, do a small pilot and really focus in on three artists that we could feature.”
“We’ve never had live musicians on the boats before and didn't want to really over-tax ourselves, I guess,” Hirsch said. “So that's why we started with three as a pilot. And like I said, certainly moving forward, we're going to review and kind of see what the response is this year and then potentially in the future do something different or grow it.”
The Channel Cat season (with four docks, in Moline, Bettendorf and Village of East Davenport) runs May 22 through Labor Day weekend, plus weekends in October. The hours are:
- Monday-Thursday: 11 a.m. to 7:40 p.m.
- Friday, Saturday & Sunday: 9 a.m. to 7:15 p.m.
While musicians will be paid, the admission charge for those rides will not be different, Hirsch said. The cost is $8 for adults (any day), and $4 for children ages 2-10.
“I always like to remind people, you can't reserve a seat on the boat,” Hirsch said. “It is a public transit option. So it is first come, first serve when you are getting on the boat at any time.”
Patrons can’t reserve tickets for a specific time, even for the live music, she noted. “So we may have an artist, there might be 200 people standing on the dock. I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. And hopefully everyone will have a little bit of grace as we work through this initial pilot program and looking forward to seeing the results of it.”
Future expansion of the live music may feature artists performing outside the docks on selected dates.
You can read about, hear excerpts and cast your vote on each Channel Cat finalist HERE.
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