Ralph Carney

Reeds player Ralph Carney was a free-thinking musician who made a career out of working with other free thinkers-notably Tom Waits, with whom he spent a productive decade. The son of a Goodyear researcher in Akron, OH, Carney was part of the city's industrial/experimental punk circuit (which most famously spawned Devo). His first major band, Tin Huey, had a college-radio hit in 1979 with a cover of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer." Tin Huey leader Chris Butler later formed the Waitresses whose 1982 hit, "I Know What Boys Like," also featured Carney on a blazing saxophone solo. Carney recorded and toured prolifically in the '90s and beyond, often with established bands who were branching out musically. He toured with the B-52's when they added a horn section, and was briefly part of Elvis Costello's Americana-themed 1986 band the Confederates. His long list of musical collaborators also included alt-rock icons Jonathan Richman, Yo La Tengo, Galaxie 500 and They Might Be Giants, along with poets Allen Ginsburg and Ira Cohen, and novelists William S. Burroughs and Kathy Acker. His work with Tom Waits began when Waits was embracing the avant-garde; Carney's work on multiple reeds (including the bass clarinet) was a key element in the clattering soundscapes of Rain Dogs, Bone Machine, and The Black Rider, Carney first recorded under his own name in a trio with two fellow underground figures, Kramer (of Bongwater) and singer/songwriter Daved Hild, formerly of Boston art-punk trio The Girls; the trio's two albums mixed sonic mischief with relatively straightforward pop. Carney in fact seemed determined never to repeat himself; while some of his solo albums tended toward free-form blowing, others (1999's I Like You (A Lot)) put the naivete of the Shaggs into a jazz context. Another variation was the Oranj Symphonette, a band he formed with other Waits-associated players, who did a straight-up homage to the glory days of film soundtracks, devoting a full album to Henry Mancini. In another about-face, he toured with pop nerds They Might be Giants in 2009. The mix of playful humor with avant-garde leanings would remain Carney's trademark. His profile got another boost when his nephew Patrick Carney rose to fame as the Black Keys' drummer; the two Carneys collaborated on four seasons of soundtrack music for the Netflix series BoJack Horseman. One of Carney's last works was a classical piece, "Lament for Charleston," inspired by that city's tragedy and performed with the Kronos Quartet. A documentary film by Laura Torell, This is Ralph Carney: King of the New Wave Horn, was nearing completion when Carney died in December 2017, after falling down stairs in his Portland home. Dozens of musicians paid online tributes and a show in his honor, the "Carneyval," was held a month later in Portland.