Sally Kelly (Marcella MacEachern) was born in 1938 in River Denys, Inverness County, Cape Breton Island to Alice and Angus MacEachern. She learned piano at the convent of Sisters of Charity in Reserve Mines, Nova Scotia, and ultimately settled in Boston, Massachusetts with her family in 1956. Kelly's early musical influences include her father, Angus MacEachern, who was a well-known Cape Breton fiddle player. Beginning in the late 1950s, she and her husband, multi-instrumentalist Jimmy Kelly, played music for many dances in Boston’s Rose Croix Hall in a band led by Cape Breton fiddle player Bill Lamey. Sally and Jimmy Kelly performed regularly at festivals 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. The Kellys had two children, Maureen and Tommy, who grew up playing Irish and Cape Breton music. In 2000, the Kelly family was inducted into the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) Hall of Fame by CCÉ's North American Province, Northeast Region.

Sources:

Gedutis, Susan. See You at the Hall: Boston’s Golden Era of Irish Music and Dance. Hanover, NH: Northeastern University Press, published by University Press of New England, 2005.

“Kelly Family - Hall of Fame 2000.” Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, February 9, 2010. https://cceboston.org/hall-of-fame/kelly-family-hall-of-fame-2000/.

"Official Obituary of Donald L. MacEachern". April 25, 2025. https://www.warehamvillagefuneralhome.com/obituary/Donald-MacEachern.

Born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts, James E. "Jimmy" Kelly (1936-2001) was well-known for his unique musical style on tenor banjo as well as his proficiency on fiddle, piano, and piano accordion. He had strong family ties to both Ireland and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and played the traditional music of both with many bands across New England, Cape Breton, and Ireland. From the late 1950s onward, Kelly played with many musicians throughout the New England area including his wife, Sally Kelly, Bill Lamey, Joe Joyce, Alex Gillis, and Johnny Powell, and with the Connacht Ceili Band led by Tommy Sheridan. Kelly was also a flute maker for the Wm. S. Haynes Company in Massachusetts. The Kellys had two children, Maureen and Tommy, who grew up playing Irish and Cape Breton music. Jimmy Kelly was a mainstay of the Boston branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann (CCÉ) and in 2000, Kelly and his family were inducted into the CCÉ Hall of Fame by the North American Province, Northeast Region.

Sources:

Gedutis, Susan. See You at the Hall: Boston’s Golden Era of Irish Music and Dance. Hanover, NH: Northeastern University Press, published by University Press of New England, 2005.

“Kelly Family - Hall of Fame 2000.” Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, February 9, 2010. https://cceboston.org/hall-of-fame/kelly-family-hall-of-fame-2000/.

“James E. Kelly, musician, at 64, of Newtonville.” Obituary. Boston Herald. January 17, 2001, p. 25.