Ralph Carney was an American singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. While his primary instruments were various saxophones and clarinets, Carney also collected and played many instruments, often unusual or obscure ones. Carney got his start as a professional musician as a founding member of the bandTin Huey. He is perhaps best known for his long association with singer Tom Waits, and worked with a vast number of others as a session musician.
Early years
Carney grew up in Akron, Ohio, and listened to music on a windup record player. He was the youngest of three siblings. His older brother, Jim Carney, is a retired longtime Akron Beacon Journal reporter. His sister, Patsy Carney, died in 1997 after a long battle with breast cancer. His father, William Carney, worked in polyester research for Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., headquartered in Akron. Ralph Carney showed an early interest in art, but turned to music in the eighth grade. He started learning five string banjo, violin, and harmonica and played bluegrass and country blues. His father, as well as his mother, Madge Carney, encouraged his interest in music. At age 15 he started to play saxophone. He also worked in a mall record store.
Career
In addition to work with Tin Huey in the 1970s and Tom Waits from the 1980s to present, Carney also recorded or performed with Dieselhed, Marc Ribot, The B-52's, Elvis Costello, Jonathan Richman, Les Claypool, Stan Ridgway, Medeski Martin & Wood, Jed Davis, Bill Laswell, and HowellDevine, among others. Carney released several solo albums and was a member of the Oranj Symphonette with fellow Waits alumni Joe Gore and Matt Brubeck. He also headed up San Francisco's Carneyball Johnson, playing on saxophones, Turkish clarinet, piccolo, trumpet, percussion and vocals. Carney collaborated with the Black Keys on their album Attack & Release. He occasionally joined them on stage when they toured that record. In 2014, he collaborated with his nephew Patrick for the BoJack Horsemantheme song. He toured with They Might Be Giants in the fall of 2009. He recorded and performed with Black Francis in 2008 a score for the Silent film, he guested with Yo La Tengo and Medeski Martin & Wood for live shows in 2010 and 2011. He recorded on a T Bone Burnett-produced project the Ghost Brothers of Darkland County with Marc Ribot and Elvis Costello, as yet unreleased. He performed on many Hal Willner-produced shows at UCLA's Royce Hall including a Tribute to Harry Smith in 2001, with a huge number of performers including Todd Rundgren, Phillip Glass, and David Johanson. Carney composed music for two poetry records on Paris Records. One was with poet Robert Creeley called Really!. He also did music for an Ira Cohen record called the Stauffenberg Cycle. In 1994 Ralph performed on the Kathy Acker record Redoing Childhood. He did some songs for some flash Web Premiere Toons cartoons on CartoonNetwork.com in 2001. His old band Tin Huey put out a compilation CD of unreleased material in 2009 on Smog Veil Records. He did a collaboration with David Greenberger who puts out the Duplex Planet called Oh Pa that came out in late 2011. After 2009 he recorded and played gigs with his Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project. A new record Seriously was issued in July 2011 on Smog Veil Records. A documentary film has been in the works for the past few years about him called This Is! Ralph Carney, which is named after his 2003 album.
Personal life
Carney's nephew Patrick Carney is the drummer for the rock band the Black Keys. The two collaborated on the theme music to the Netflix original seriesBoJack Horseman. A memorial tribute can be observed during the opening credits to season 5. Carney died on December 17, 2017, at the age of 61, from head injuries sustained falling down steps in his home in Portland, Oregon the previous day. He was survived by his daughter, Hedda, as well as his partner, Megan Hinchliffe.
