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Kelly, Sally, 1938-

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1938    

Parallel Names

  • MacEachern, Marcella, 1938-

Biographical note

Born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia in 1938, piano player Sally Kelly (born Marcella MacEachern) settled in Boston, Massachusetts with her family in 1956. Beginning in the late 1950s, she and her husband Jimmy Kelly played music for many dances in Boston’s Rose Croix Hall in a band led by Bill Lamey, and toured internationally with the Boston-based Connacht Ceili Band. From the 1970s through the early 1990s, the Kellys’ home in Newtonville, Massachusetts was a hub for Irish and Cape Breton music sessions, with Sally Kelly often providing piano accompaniment. In 2000, the Kelly family was inducted into the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) Hall of Fame by CCÉ's North American Province, Northeast Region.

Social Networks and Archival Context (SNAC) Identifier

Found in 1 Collection or Record:

Sally and Jimmy Kelly collection of Irish music

 Collection
Identifier: IM-M199-2015
Abstract

Collection documents traditional Cape Breton and Irish music in the 1960s through the 1990s with live recordings of social gatherings, concerts, and radio shows performed in Massachusetts, Canada, and Ireland by various musicians, including Sally and Jimmy Kelly.

Access Note

The audio recordings are not available for playback due to format impermanence and have not been reformatted. Please let Burns Library Public Services know of your specific interest; if possible, reformatting will be scheduled.

Dates: approximately 1968-1997