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Sound of music continues
When Billy "Blacky" Foster died March 7, it could have ended a beloved Amarillo music tradition. Instead, what happened at Foster's House of Strings might be described simply as a change of key. Maggie Scales bought the store from Blacky Foster's widow, Muriel Dean Foster, renaming it Scale's Strings and Things. Muriel Dean Foster and Billie Foster Palmer, Blacky Foster's daughter, expressed gratitude that the store stayed in the local music community. "We really appreciate Maggie taking over that store so it's continuing," Palmer said, choking back tears. The tradition runs deep with the Foster children. "We didn't go to Disneyworld like the other kids," Palmer said. "We went to bluegrass festivals." Scales will continue the Foster tradition of jam sessions, with live music in the store on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Today will mark the first try for a Saturday session, Scales said on Friday. "It's such a ma and pa organization," Scales said. "It just feels like another family to me." Well it should. Husband Mike Peacock and their son and daughter help in the store. "I just love being around musicians," Scales said. No surprise, given her pedigree. Her father, Carlton Scales was a longtime big band musician who owned the Aviatrix Ballroom on Amarillo Boulevard. Scales recalled growing up with big band leaders Les Brown, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey and Louis Armstrong jamming in her home as Carlton Scales taped the sessions. One of her family is preserving those and is converting them to compact discs, she said. Scales started private music lessons at age 7, learning piano and violin, and started playing with the Amarillo Symphony in junior high school. At one point, four of the five Scales children sat with the orchestra, she said. Scales has had her own bands, including "Maggie Scales and Texas," she said. And try as she might to get a degree at Amarillo College and West Texas A&M University, she still lacks a year of general coursework. Every time she tried, she got sidetracked by taking another music course, she laughed. She said she has also worked on and off in the retail side of the music business for years, thoroughly enjoying it. "I had been here about a year before Blacky passed away," she said. "We got along well." She was afraid the store would fall into the hands of someone who wasn't committed to keeping the jam sessions, she said. Those sessions are held in part of the store's main showroom. Overlooking the area for the sessions, marked by a small oriental-style rug, is a wall of guitars: acoustic and electric with famous names. "He just loved music," Muriel Dean Foster said of Blacky. "It helped him so much. He loved that store just about better than anything."
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