One Carlsbad Woman Is Living Her Life Musically

By R. Gabriel Villalobos

For those who have caught live music around Carlsbad recently, there is a decent chance Cathy Queen was involved somehow. She might have been on stage, or she might have been the one who organized the whole thing.

Queen, a native of Carlsbad, has quietly become one of the most prolific musicians in the Pecos Valley. Now freshly retired from a 41-year career with the Bureau of Land Management, she has traded her government job for a ukulele, a bass guitar, and a rather surprising work-in-progress: the bagpipes.

“My husband usually leaves for an hour so I can have time to practice,” Queen said with a laugh, acknowledging the instrument’s volume. She’s taking lessons through an online academy and is keeping her piping under wraps until she’s ready for prime time. “I want it to be good when I go out.”

Her journey into music started long before retirement, thanks to her grandfather. When she was around three years old, he picked her up, sat her on a piano bench, and told her to play. Every weekend, there was music at his house, and young Cathy absorbed it all.

That early exposure stuck. By the fifth grade, she had picked up the flute. By 11th grade, she was good enough to play with the Roswell Symphony Orchestra. The flute remains her primary instrument today.

But “primary” is a relative term for Queen. Over the years, she has added layers to her musical life that read more like a festival lineup than a hobby. She has played cello in a club in Nacogdoches, TX. She has performed with a chamber ensemble in Fort Worth. Locally, she has been a fixture in the mariachi band for 20 years, a run that took her to Chihuahua, Mexico, to see the real thing.

She has played in 38 musicals. She taught Middle Eastern dancing for a decade, which eventually led to performing in New Zealand. She once served as backstage manager for a Randy Travis show. She even put on a bluegrass festival in Carlsbad for five years.

“That’s why my husband tells people, ‘Don’t ask her what she plays,’” Queen said.

Now that she is retired, Queen is channeling that energy into teaching. She offers free ukulele classes at the local senior center—soon to relocate to the Cascades Wellness Center—and takes on young flute students whenever she can.

Her teaching philosophy is simple and encouraging. With new ukulele students, she starts with two easy chords. “I tell them once you learn those two chords, you can play 500 to a thousand pieces,” she said. “After two lessons, they’re already playing songs, and it just blows them away.”

She recently brought a collection of instruments to the Early Childhood Education Center for children ages three to five. She opened the cases and let them touch and play.

“To see those little kids’ eyeballs is just—we got some future musicians coming along,” she said.

If you want to see Queen in action, mark your calendar for Friday, April 24, at the Cascades Recreation and Wellness Center, 405 Cascades Avenue. The ukulele group, along with the City Voices choir and some country and western jammers, will put on a show. It’s a twice-yearly event meant to showcase the activities available to anyone over 40.

“It’s pretty entertaining,” Queen said. “They even have sing-alongs with the audience.”

Despite the packed schedule—she had 22 performances this past December alone—Queen is already looking ahead. Her mariachi band is hoping to play in Amarillo this summer. Local groups, she notes, could use more guitar players and choir singers. The community band is always looking for musicians who may have let their instruments gather dust.

“If they’ve ever played an instrument, we will take them,” Queen said.

Her husband, also retired, played drums in a country band with her for about a decade before COVID. These days, he practices along with CDs.

“He says he plays with the best,” Queen said.

As for Queen, she shows no signs of slowing down. Between the jazz band, the recorder group, the choirs, and those bagpipes waiting for their debut, there is always another note to learn, another student to encourage, another performance to prepare.