Our people: Retired judge returns to music

Duane Castleberry has been a magistrate judge and spent nearly 20 years in the automotive muffler business, but the frame of his life has been music.

He started playing drums professionally in the 1970s at the age of 18 and made his living in music for about eight years.

Now as a retired magistrate judge, music is again a central interest in his life as he has continued an association with Johnny Mulhair, a well-known Clovis musician.

Castleberry took some time on Thursday to talk to the news about his career and his life and music.

Here are our questions and his responses.

Q. How long did you serve as a magistrate judge?

A. I was elected to three full terms, about 12 years, then I was judge pro tem for a couple of years. If state needed me somewhere they could send me there.

Q. Is there anything miss about being a judge?

A. I miss the interaction and feeling like I'm contributing something to society, but there's a lot of it I don't miss.

Q. Like what?

A. I don't miss the criminals and the revolving door. A few years ago, the state Supreme Court's focus became "no-cash bonds." Everybody gets out of jail and no one stays until they are convicted. We would see somebody on Monday, send them out on a recognizance bond, and they'd be back again on Friday because they couldn't control themselves.

Q. What would help that situation?

A. We need a mental health facility. We worked with jail administrators to try not to fill up the jail and try to get mental health help for some of them.

Q. What do you like to do now in retirement?

A. I have a small ranch and a few cattle. I like to hunt, and I like to fish. I like to hunt birds and I occasionally hunt coyotes. I have grandkids I like to spend time with.

I work on drums. I buy a few drums, take them apart and try to refinish them and give drum lessons sometimes.

My wife and I build things out of wood. Not technical things, some rough things like plant stands.

Mostly I mow the property, and I play drums and sing.

Q. That's a good segue to talking about your music career. What are you doing with (well known Clovis musician and recording artist) Johnny Mulhair?

A. We have a band we call the Jump Band. That name just popped out at me. We had a booking and they asked me "What do you call this band?" We didn't have a name, I had just watched this thing on TV about "jump bands" in the 1940s and decided that's what our name would be.

Q. When did your music career start?

A. I started playing nightclubs when I was 18 years old. We had legal papers drawn up that said night club owners were sort of like guardians so they would let me in just to play music. I was in a trio that had a very commercial sound. The Carpenters were big and that time. We played jobs where we got money and we lived in the hotels where we played for a few weeks at a time. It was a nice life for four years, but like all good things, it came to an end.

Before it ended, we were the first band to play at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, the first to play at the Santa Fe Hilton and at the Inn at Loretto in Santa Fe. We got a good following. It was nice for a young guy at 19 and 20 years old. I could ski three days a week when we stayed in Santa Fe. We got rooms and maid service free and half-price for the food.

Q. What happened after that?

A. I got a call from a friend in Los Angeles. He was in a band that was getting a record deal and he asked if I would like to audition for the band.

I went to Los Angeles intending to stay for four weeks, and I ended up being there for four years.

The band was called Pakala-Meredith, the last names of the band leaders. They got the record deal and my name was on it along with a lot of famous people. It sold maybe 10 copies.

I stayed with them. They included the keyboard players for Rare Earth and the Grass Roots (two popular 1970s bands) and a guy who played slide guitar for the Eagles and Jackson Browne, and some famous background singers.

I had to take a job at a local convenience store to keep up the rent, because the money wasn't very good.

A few years later I decided there was only one Elvis Presley and it wasn't me. I started thinking about my future and returned to Clovis.

Q. What did you do when you came back?

A. I quit the music business and took some manual labor jobs for a while, went to school for a while. Then in 1980, my dad and I opened our muffler shop, which became KC Muffler and Manufacturing. I met and married my wife Cheryl when we opened the business. I didn't play music for about 20 years.

In 1991, my dad and I were featured on the cover of a trade magazine called Exhaust News, and there was a long story about how we got started in the business.

We manufactured mufflers, pre-bent tailpipes and we distributed welding rods, clamps, gaskets and screws, welders and bender and all that stuff.

We lived in Clovis, but the headquarters for our business was Muleshoe, Texas. That's a pretty unusual name.

I was talking to a customer once who asked where we were located. I told him "Muleshoe, Texas" and said it's a funny name.

Then the customer said, "Dude, I'm calling you from Frog Jump, Tennessee."

"You win," I told him.

Q. But then you came back to music, right?

A. We sold out the business in 2000.

Johnny was after me to attend a musicians reunion in Clovis every year in the '90s. Finally, in the late 1990s, I went. I sat in with a few bands, and I was terrible, but I started playing again with Johnny.

Then he started working with Will Bannister (a local country singer with a growing reputation). Johnny and I were in his backup band, and he was called to play at Wembley Stadium in London, England. Everybody (who is a famous performer) has played there. There were 18 of us who went to England and made a vacation of it, and the band played for about 20 minutes.

Will was very well received. Now when I see concerts at Wembley I can say, "I was standing right there on that stage."

We played with Will for seven or eight years.

Q. And when did you become a judge?

A. At about that time, one day I decided I wanted to be a judge. I ran and won three terms, or about 12 years, and retired in 2018. I served three years as president of the New Mexico Magistrate Judges Association and served on a committee that looked into technology for magistrate judge offices.

Q. What kind of music do you like the best?

A. I like jazzy blues. Steely Dan is my favorite. I like Pink Floyd. It's a lot of stuff you can't really play because people can't dance to it. I like the Eagles and Jackson Browne, and other singer-songwriters. I like playing rock that's not overpowering, with a little taste and not too loud so everyone can hear everything. I like blues. I do like all kinds of music.

Q. What do you get from playing music?

A. I love the art form. I love the feeling of accomplishment when you do something really good that you've worked hard at. When you do it well, you know you've done it well. I get a sense of personal fulfillment.