James Kelly (fiddler)

Kelly was born into a musical family in Capel Street, Dublin in 1957.[1][2] His father, John Kelly, was a fiddle and concertina player from Kilbaha, County Clare.[5] His father was also a founding member, along with Seán Ó Riada, of Ceoltóirí Chualann.[1][6] His mother, Frances Hilliard, was from Shillelagh, County Wicklow.[7] Together, they had 5 children: Michael, John Jnr, Anthony, Marianne and James, all musicians.[7] Michael, John, Marianne and James played the fiddle and Anthony was a piper.[7] When James was 3 years of age, his father began teaching him to play the fiddle.[1] In 1960, his father purchased him a fiddle, made in Alsace-Lorraine in 1812.[8]

Kelly's performing and recording career began in 1971 at the age of 14, with several broadcasts for RTÉ.[1] At the age of 16, he won first place in the Fiddler of the Year competition[1] and recorded his first album, a fiddle duet with his brother John, titled John & James Kelly: Irish Traditional Fiddle Music.[9][10] During that time, he joined the group Ceoltóirí Laigheann, that included his father John, Paddy O'Brien, Mary Bergin, and Paddy Glackin. He recorded two albums with this group. The first, The Crooked Road,[11] was a live recording of a 1973 concert held in University College Dublin to support Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Gobnait, a Gaeltacht school in Dún Chaoin, County Kerry then threatened with closure.[12][13] The second album, The Star Of Munster,[14] was released in 1975 and has been described by Irish music critic Siobhán Long of The Irish Times as "widely influential".[15]

In 1978, Kelly emigrated to the US.[1] He spent the next three years touring the US with Paddy O'Brien and Dáithí Sproule as part of a group known as Bowhand and recorded two albums with the Shanachie Records label, Is It Yourself in 1979[16][17] and Spring In The Air in 1982.[18][19] In 1982, Kelly joined Irish folk group Planxty[20] and recorded on their Words & Music album in 1983.[21][22] That same year, Kelly featured on Dolores Keane and John Faulkner's album, Sail Óg Rua.[23] Kelly was also part of a quartet with Keane and Faulkner (and accordionist Jackie Daly), known as Kinvara, although they never recorded under such name.[24] In 1985, he recorded with Danny McGinley on his album In Our Time.[25]

In 1989, Kelly released his first solo album titled Capel Street, recorded in Rostrevor, County Down and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Accompanying him on the album were various musicians including Chuck Heymann (bodhrán), Josephine Keegan (piano), Arty McGlynn (guitar), Noreen O'Donoghue (harp, synthesizer) and Dáithí Sproule (guitar).[26] Kelly was also a member of the group Patrick Street for a time and in 1990 recorded on their Irish Times album, featuring their well-known cover of "Music for a Found Harmonium".[27][28] That same year, Kelly performed with various artists at the Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival, from which a live album was recorded and released in 1991 titled My Love Is In America.[29][30] In 1995, Kelly recorded The Ring Sessions album with Zan McLeod.[31] In 1996, Kelly released his second solo album, simply titled James Kelly. This album featured the accompaniment of Paddy Keenan (pipes), Zan McLeod (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin), Mark Stone (keyboards, bodhrán) and Daithí Connaughton (flute).[32][33]

In 2001, Kelly was awarded the Florida Folk Heritage Award by the Florida Folklife Program in recognition of his "outstanding musicianship".[1][34] Kelly released a third solo album in 2004, titled Melodic Journeys, which he recorded in Miami, Florida.[35] That same year, Patrick Street's recording of "Music for a Found Harmonium" featured on the soundtrack of American comedy film, Napoleon Dynamite. In 2006, he was the recipient of the TG4 Traditional Musician of the Year Award at Gradam Ceoil TG4, Ireland's annual traditional music awards.[36][37] In addition to his performing career, Kelly has composed over 800 tunes.[1] In 2009, he released his first book of compositions titled 101 Traditional Irish Dance Tunes Composed by James Kelly, Volume 1.[2][38] This collection contains 6 barn dances, 1 Highland Fling, 2 hornpipes, 31 double jigs, 7 slip jigs, 3 polkas, 42 reels, 5 slides, and 4 strathspeys.[2] In 2010, the two albums Kelly recorded with Ceoltóirí Laigheann, The Crooked Road and The Star Of Munster, were reissued as a digitally remastered double CD under the title Cnuas.[12][39] Siobhán Long of The Irish Times described the albums as "two seminal recordings".[15]

Kelly moved to Miami from Dublin in 1984.[8] Since settling there, he met American-born wife, Eve.[40] Together, they had a son, Timothy, and a daughter, Sarah, also a fiddler.[40][7] Outside of music, Kelly has worked in a gift shop that he and his wife, Eve, owned until 1991.[40] In his early life, James would come on holiday, to his Ancestral home or that of his Mother, in Balisland County Wicklow. It was always an interesting time, when the Kelly's came to our neighbourhood on holiday, it gave us a chance to meet up and play with different friends. It seemed, the summer passed very quickly in those days. Later, when I left my home and joined the Military, I paid many visits to the shop owned and ran by, James's father John, who was a very nice man, in my estimation. I guess that time has moved on and I have moved back to the house where I was actually born in, no hospital for me and it is probably a sign of the times we live in now, all traces, except memories of The Family of James have disappeared from here, with the selling of 3 dwellings, 2 Hilliard and 1 Keogh, those Families were related by a marriage and we have new people living in those houses. Time nor tide, waits for no man or woman. End of my ramblings.

• Official website
• James Kelly discography at Discogs
• Archive material of James Kelly in the Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA)
• James Kelly TG4 Ceoltóir na Bliana 2006 TG4 on YouTube
• James Kelly at ITMA 2019: an interview and tunes on YouTube