Eva Cain wows audience at Land Trust concert
By Halle Wyatt, Co-Content Editor

By the sound of her voice, you might not guess that Eva Cain is only fifteen years old. Her love of music and performing is soulfully translated into her songs. In concert, she leaves an audience bewitched.

Cain’s voice is impressive alone, but for the past two years, she has been challenging herself through learning the acoustic guitar from local teacher Daryl Redeker.

“Singing comes very easily to me because I’ve been doing it for so long,” she said. “Guitar was definitely a challenge at first because when you learn an instrument you can’t start having fun until you learn the basics of it … At the beginning… it was just so tedious and you had to practice all the time and didn’t really reward itself.”

Cain’s long history of singing is primarily made up of covers, but she’s intrigued by the prospect of someday composing her own lyrics.

“My guitar teacher really wants me to start writing my own songs but I keep telling him that I’m only fifteen now and I haven’t experienced that much so it’s kind of hard to write about stuff that you haven’t experienced before,” Cain said. “I’m taking it slowly with that because I don’t want it to be forced. I want to have a reason to write a song.”

Redeker still encourages Cain to give song writing a try, though

“It’s easy to write a song, it’s hard to write a good song,” Redeker said. “She doesn’t have a lot of experience with it, but I bet she might be really cool at it because the gift of her voice might lend itself to something just coming out of her within.”

Redeker believes that if Cain continues to put effort into her guitar and voice skills, she has a legitimate chance at one day making a career for herself in the music industry.

“I’ve got a feeling she’s a racehorse,” he said. “If she goes somewhere and uses her voice to make a living, I think she has a real shot at it.”

Cain has been in multiple musical theater productions through the years, at one time playing the titular role in Cinderella. She also has experience playing small gigs around the island, such as at Vashon Bookshop this past summer.

On December 13, Cain opened for Redeker’s band at the Land Trust building. She performed songs such as “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” and “My Church.”

“This is the first thing that I’ve done that’s called a concert,” Cain said. “That’s a little intimidating.”

Despite her anxiety, she gained significant confidence after performing at the high school’s Open Mic.

“High schoolers are so scary [and] I’m a freshman. No one knows me,” she said. “They were really, really supportive and that was really reassuring.”

Cain’s talented voice captivated Land Trust patrons, impressing the concertgoers when she easily switched genres and sang verses of “The Star Spangled Banner” in Norwegian. When she sings, she can be described as an old soul.

“She’s remarkable because she’s just turned 15 and she sings like she has life experience,” Redeker said.