HURRICANE, Utah — Hurricane’s new music star holds court with a guitar on a street behind a local music theater, and by the way, he's just 7 years old.
"He just brought out the guitar, and he's like, 'I'm going to start playing music. I'm going to be a musician,’ said Juana Puga Marquez about how her son, Cain, got into music at such a young age.
Cain's performance spot at 850 West might as well be Bruce Springsteen’s E Street, as he’s taken his talents to the streets.
The guitar came from when Cain’s grandmother was sick, and his dad learned to play the guitar for her. If it all sounds like the movie “Coco,” Cain said he hasn’t seen it.
In fact, he says his favorite songs are the ones he makes up.
"I make my favorite songs," he said.
Cain’s parents try to encourage their son’s imagination. One night, when he said he wanted to run a restaurant, they turned their living room into a Buffalo Wild Wings. So when Cain, which is pronounced KI-een, started playing for passing motorists, Juana decided to post about it on Facebook.
'I was like, 'Hey, if you're around the neighborhood, come show him a little support,' because he was so excited," Puga Marquez explained. "It was pretty slow at first, and then, after like there was cars passing by, they're like, 'Play me a little bit.' And it's like, they would give him a dollar. Someone would give him five."
It went viral with a line of cars waiting to hear Cain play, leading to visions of bigger venues. When I asked him where he'd want people to watch him play, he said the roof!
Juana and her husband, Hector, are in business themselves, running a third-generation Mexican sorbet stand. She knew she had to teach her son and his four siblings an important business lesson about what happens when the fans stop coming. She made sure to have Cain go out when the cars weren’t coming, leaving him with an empty tip bowl.
"I tried to explain to him, people aren't gonna come every day," she explained. "We don't get a lot of people every time. And he's like, 'Oh, yeah, I remember that one time no one came.' And I'm like, exactly. And it's okay. We just try again. The next day will be better."
