Pete Scales

With his Nanie at the piano, Pete Scales began his musical journey at a church talent show in the farm community of Pine Brook, New Jersey in 1958. To her honkytonk acompaniment, he sang, “With me shillelagh under me arm and a twinkle in me eye, I'll be off to Tipperary in the morning.” She had given his best lesson on performing: "Keep the beat, Lovie, just keep the beat." 

In 1968, while studying at Syracuse University, he sold his last clarinet to buy his first guitar and began writing songs. Over the next decade, he performed solo and in bands in countless bars, clubs, and coffeehouses in the Syracuse to Ithaca corridor.

Awarded an audition for the 1990s TV show Be a Star on the Nashville Network, Pete enjoyed the honor of performing onstage at the Grand Ole Opry. 

In 2002, Pete became a solo contemporary Christian singer, doing covers of hits and old hymns in church worship and funeral services across the country until he retired from singing in 2023. One highlight of these years was being invited to sing “God Bless America” at an immigrant naturalization ceremony in 2014 on Flag Day in the flag-draped rotunda of St. Louis’s historic Old Courthouse. 

Pete has released four CDs prior to Blue Without You, one of his Christian covers, and three CDs of original songs. Some of this music is available on streaming services. 

Blue Without You is Pete's new collection of original songs written and recorded from 1970-2001 and what he calls "the best 12 songs I wrote in a long musical career."