As she explains in her autobiographical song, Back There Again, this Woodstock hippie girl, “…cut her hair and got a career, and lost herself for 30 odd years.”  Forgetting her dreams of being a doctor working in ghettos, she became a successful business woman, well known for speeches, articles and books about marketing technology.

Carlene says a series of God-driven events led her back to her true self through the agricultural community of Immokalee, Florida, (rhymes with broccoli) where she volunteered as a music teacher for pre-school children and still sometimes sings with the choir at Our Lady of Guadalupe church.

Her love of farm workers inspired two books: Immokalee’s Fields of Hope and Called From Silence: The Father Sanders Story.  She also has written several songs that were inspired by her work and friendships in Immokalee:  ”Take These Hands,” “Mama in Your Heart,” “When Papa Goes North,” “Our Lady of Guadalupe,” and “On the Road Home.”

Today, Carlene spends a lot of her time in Saugerties, NY (home of The Band’s house, “Big Pink”), as well as at her home in Naples.  Not a “snowbird,” but rather a “whim-bird,” she goes back and forth when she chooses.  In addition to performing in Florida, she plays frequently at open mics in the Hudson River Valley, including the town of Woodstock.

Her autobiographical song, Back There Again, features “the guitar she named Alice.”  Carlene carved the back of that guitar “Woodstock 1969, Three Days of Peace and Music.”  In one of her most exciting moments, in late 2024, she donated Alice to the museum at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the location of the original Woodstock. The staff there was thrilled to add it to their collection.
Carlene is a member of The Female Musicians Academy, Global Songwriters Connection, and the Americana Community Music Association.