Eva Kendall has a blazingly bright future ahead of her, as seemingly limitless as the mighty Mississippi River.
The mature, talented 14-year-old Rock Island High School student was the first featured musician on the Channel Cat Water Taxi Thursday, June 18, in a new summer music series, with one artist each during June, July and August.
Eva performed a mix of covers (including Fleetwood Mac, Chris Stapleton and Norah Jones) and originals for two hours on the 49-person capacity boat Thursday afternoon, singing and amplified with a speaker. She will return on Sunday, June 21, on one of the two Channel Cat boats (which operate at the same time) from 10 a.m. to noon.
Eva was surprised to be picked as one of the Channel Cat artists, out of 70 submissions. MetroLINK in late March sought applications for solo, acoustic artists to perform on board (six sessions total); and they chose eight finalists. The public voted for their top three favorites, and they each perform this summer, on two, two-hour stretches apiece (the roundtrip to four docks usually takes 65 minutes).
“I love the Channel Cat and I love water and I love the river,” Eva said before she went on Thursday. “I was ranked like top 10, and that's a crazy feeling.”
“Going into 10th grade, it's like, it's crazy to think that you're among top 10,” she said. “I don't even know how to describe it.”
Alan Silas of MetroLINK said they’ll see how the public likes the live music, and may schedule more artists for both boats on one weekend each month of the summer next year.
“We have one during the Alternating Currents music fest. So I think that that would be like a good weekend to choose if we want to do a weekend next year of Alternating Currents. There's music downtown, there's music on the Channel Cat; it could be cool,” he said.
Silas said it was tough to narrow down eight finalists out of all musicians who submitted, but he knew Eva was ready after seeing her open for Lissie last year at Raccoon Motel.
“And as soon as she got done, Someone on the mic was like, ‘She's only 13 years old.’ And then me and my friend group were like, ‘What?’ So yeah, I've heard of her before,” he said.
“Then when she came back up and I pulled her up, I was like, oh my gosh, that's how I know her. And I knew for sure she'd be in the top three. That one was like a no-brainer.”
An only child, Eva has been into music since she was very little.
She took piano lessons from 5 years old to 7th grade, and during COVID shutdown, taught herself to play ukulele. “Then pretty much two years ago was like, I really want to do this. And then I started gigging and doing everything for it,” Eva said.
By 6th grade, she learned to play guitar, partly through taking Common Chord’s Rock Camp, Kidstock and Winter Blues Camp.
She fondly recalls her first electric guitar solo on the Redstone Room stage. “The first time I had a concert there, there was so much adrenaline that I was like on the floor, like rocking back and forth in the back of the stage,” Eva said.
In early 2024, she wrote her first solo song, “Your Bones,” which she released as a single and video in 2025. She recently released a new EP (of five originals), “Unfiltered.” That includes “River Song,” which she fittingly did aboard the Channel Cat Thursday. Eva has written over 30 songs so far.
“I want to take it in smaller chunks because also specifically with this EP, it's called ‘Unfiltered’ because it resembles kind of what life is and I wanted to make less songs with more emotion and I figured that I put the songs in an order so that it was like one was happy and the next one was like blues, and the next one was super chill, and then it was sad, and then it was angry, and it was— it's basically all of life formed into just five songs,” she said.
Eva doesn’t write from personal experience, but her songs reflect life unfiltered, and sometimes adapts other people’s stories.
“If people have kind of a filter on life, it doesn't show what's actually happening,” she said. “I wanted these songs to just be like, something everyone can relate to, but it could also relate to a specific thing or someone.”
“Your Bones” was actually based on a “Grey’s Anatomy” episode, Eva said. “I don't try to write about myself because I also feel like it's harder for me to sum it up to a general idea if it's on one specific moment about me.”
“When I write songs about myself, it's not always the easiest to talk about or sing about, or because it is personal and I'm not an open person and I'm fine with sharing everything, but I don't prefer to,” she said. “I have my own experiences just like everyone has their own, and I'm not trying to share my whole life out there about it.”
“The River Song” is a blues tune inspired by the Mississippi, which she did on the Channel Cat.
“The river was always just a really calming place for me ever since I was young. I love Sunset Marina, I love the Rock River, I've loved everything about all the rivers around here,” Eva said. “If you just sit in silence by the river, it's crazy how much you can just let go and just relax. And I think I've loved that since I was little. And so I was like, I might as well write a song about it. And but it's more, it's fast-paced and blues, which is not something you think when I say relaxing.”
** Watch her perform most of "River Song" below.
“I love the Channel Cat and I love water and I love the river,” she said.
Variety of genres
She calls her sound “indie pop rock,” and markets herself as a young singer-songwriter with an old soul.
“I sing a ton of Fleetwood Mac. I love Fleetwood Mac,” Eva said. “I do Billy Joel, I do Def Leppard, I do tons of things. But the cool thing is you can change any song to fit your voice. And I very much believe that if a song doesn't fit you, you can make it fit you in any way. And blues songs, for instance, I think blues definitely influenced me the most when I was younger because it was something that's like this one genre created all of these genres.”
“ I don't have one specific genre, I think, 'cause I range from rock to pop to blues, everything,” she said. That range includes a wide scope of emotions on “Unfiltered,” for which she plans a release party in the fall.
Eva has been gigging around the area since she was 12, and she’s always accompanied by one of her parents. She’s formed a bond with fellow Rock Island native Lissie (who’s earned global musical success), and has opened for her at Davenport’s Raccoon Motel.
“She obviously tours around the whole world and it's, I don't know, that's crazy to me that not necessarily someone from a small town but someone that you know close that, you grew up with is just out there touring the world,” Eva said.
“My mom's known her since they were little, and so I automatically grew up knowing them,” she said of Lissie, who is now 43. “I'm close to her nieces, and I go to school with them, which is really cool. Even though she's out doing her stuff and I'm out doing mine, we still find time to talk and catch up and do things.
"And I think it's cool that we are able to do that because it's not something where it's like, even though she is a celebrity to me," Eva said. "So even though she is a celebrity, it's cool that it's not something where, she doesn't expect to be necessarily treated differently. She expects to be treated like a human, which I think is really cool. Because artists are still human.”
“We sound similar, but we sound different enough that it's cool, you know, to see,” Eva said. “It's cool to see that someone who influenced me is, you know, still influencing me. But I'd say another big influence is Freddie Mercury. He is who he is and RIP, but he's a great, great influence.”
She said she first heard the Queen epic “Bohemian Rhapsody” at 6, and immediately fell in love with the supergroup.
“The fact that they can incorporate almost every genre into this one song is insane. And I think that's kind of what I wanted for my EP too,” Eva said. “I took after ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a little bit because I was like, I want to incorporate all these emotions into one EP and, really try to hone in on what it's like to feel every emotion at once.”
Loving the QC music scene
Her mother, Ali, is her main booker, scheduling her at restaurants and other live music venues across the region. Eva is close with many busy local artists, including Levi Craft, Alex Axup and Donovan Gustofson.
“It's surreal because the Quad Cities is, it's small enough that you know where everything is and you know who people are and everything, but it's big enough that it's like there's so many things to do and there's so many great musicians and so many people that'll support you," she said.
"The music scene around here is so amazing. 'Cause everyone supports everyone, and we just all— we're all trying to do our best out here, and I think, you know, by all of us working together, it just really helps."
Alex Axup — a busy bass player, with Fair Warning and Mo's Garage, who teaches at Wilson Middle School — is a big fan of Eva, and about 13 years older.
"Eva is driven, passionate, humble and kind. She has a voice that draws you in and a love and natural gift for music that is inspiring," Axup said Friday.
"She has been a sponge since the moment she stepped into the music scene, absorbing everything she could and everyone has welcomed her with open arms," she said. "Speaking from experience, I know how much I appreciated learning from music mentors in the QC and she has done the same.
"I can't help but smile when I watch her perform, feeling like an older sister at times, and I was beyond proud when I had the opportunity to listen to her EP that just released," Axup said. "You can hear how her roots are in the blues, but it is fun to see her expanding and finding her sound evolving into other styles as well.
"Not only is she a rock star on stage, but she is heavily involved at school and prioritizes her academics, too," she added. "I'm looking forward to seeing what she does next and will always cherish my memories performing with her!"
Eva is on the varsity swim team at Rocky (where she’s a 4.0 honors student), and the number of her gigs is more this summer compared to last year, most Wednesdays through Sunday nights.
“So it is busier, but it's also, I don't really want to play sports in college all that much. I'm more focused on music and business and marketing for college,” Eva said. “Obviously I want to succeed in my sports while I'm in high school, but it's not on the top of my mind right now. So I spend most of my time practicing, or learning new songs or writing, or most of the time I'm writing. As far as learning new songs, I just pick a song I'm familiar with and learn it on the spot.”
She typically writes one new song each week.
“I think the more people that enjoy my music, I just get happier, you know?” Eva said. “Even if it's three people enjoying my music in a room full of 100, it's at least those three people are enjoying it, you know?"
She had a blast playing for the last two St. Patrick’s Day bashes at Kavanaugh’s in Rock Island, this past one with Far Out 283 and Radio Fighter Pilots, where she jammed with the bands and played a solo 30-minute set.
“It's surreal. I mean, there's not a way to describe it. Seriously, I mean, 'cause you have all this energy that you're just putting out into the crowd,” Eva recalled. “You wake up that morning and you're hyped, you're excited, but you don't actually feel the energy until everyone is there singing the songs with you. And having fun and dancing. It's just, it's great. I mean, even though most people are drunk on that day, it's a fun day.”
“If I can make people happy, that's the only thing I care about, you know,” she said. “I think everyone deserves to be happy. I love playing in front of tons of people, but whether it's a tiny amount of people or it's a lot of people, as long as I'm making people happy, that's all I care about.”
She plans on attending Augustana College in her hometown.
“I'm not one of those people who's also like, I gotta get out of this town,” Eva said. “I wanna stay in this town as long as possible. I love the Quad Cities, it's great.”
“I want to live at home. I want to be able to stay in this town because I also think, coming from this town and being an artist, you can't just also leave behind where you started,” she said. “I love how Lissie comes back and plays here all the time. She doesn't just forget about the Quad Cities. I think that's really inspirational for me to stay here.”
Kim Nickels of Silvis, a board member of Common Chord, was on the Channel Cat Thursday.
“I’ve seen her a number of times, and I really like her. That’s why I’m on here,” she said. “I knew she was here, I think this is a lot of fun. It adds a lot to the boat. I think she’s great, for 14; she’s writing her own music. It’s amazing. She’s very mature. She carries herself really well; she’s very personable, interacts with people. She has a big future ahead of her.”
Upcoming artists in the Channel Cat series are:
- Mo Carter: July 16, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. and July 19, 10 a.m. – 12 noon.
- Kaiden Leezer: Aug. 13, 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. and Aug. 16, 10 a.m. – 12 noon.
Among Eva Kendall’s upcoming gigs, after tonight (June 19) from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Green Gables marina in LeClaire, she will play:
- Sunday, June 21, 10 a.m. to noon on the Channel Cat.
- Friday, June 26 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Current Hotel’s City Loafers, Davenport.
- Saturday, June 27, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Highlands Restaurant, Eagle Ridge Resort & Spa, Galena.
- Sunday, June 28, 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Ducky's Lagoon, Taylor Ridge.
For more information and to hear her music, visit Eva’s website HERE.
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