When I was a child my father used to occasionally play a button accordion. I don't know how much musical ability he had but it sounded good to me although to my ears, every piece sounded the same. He was never a public performer, just for his own enjoyment.
However as I've been researching my extended family I've found some musical surprises. There was a local 5th cousin in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia who apparently was quite the fiddle player and won awards in provincial fiddling contests. His name was Clell Ellwood Joudrey. He recorded one record album a couple years before his death which is quite rare if it can be found. The picture is from the cover. Clell's father gave him a fiddle on his 8th birthday. Three years later he was offered a chance to tour North America with a group of musicians which of course his parents refused - he was way too young for that. I have to admit that I had not heard of him before now however his name is ranked equally with other Maritime fiddling stars that I do know.
On the other hand, I have found two ladies, both still living, who were Canadian country music singing stars back in the 1970's. The first is Joyce Seamone (centre picture) who still lives locally. Her first song in 1972 "Testing 1-2-3" went to number 1 getting her a gold record. The second is Carroll Baker (right picture) also very well known who was born here but moved to Toronto as a teenager. I have two record albums in my collection from each of them and never knew they were also 5th cousins..
And just this week I learned of a 3rd cousin once removed whose occupation was listed as "musician in a jazz band" in the 1930's-1940's in Weymouth MA named Chester Benjamin Nelson (b. 1908) but I could find very little about him.