Ralph Carney

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Ralph Carney (born January 23, 1956, Akron, Ohio, U.S.A.) is an American musician. While his primary instruments are various saxophones and clarinets, Carney collects and plays many instruments, often unusual or obscure ones.

He was a founding member of Tin Huey, and is perhaps best known for his long association with singer Tom Waits. He has also recorded or performed with Dieselhed, Marc Ribot, The B-52's, Elvis Costello, Les Claypool and Bill Laswell. Ralph Carney has released several solo albums and was a member of the Oranj Symphonette with fellow Waits alumni, Joe Gore and Matt Brubeck. He also heads up San Francisco's Carneyball Johnson, featuring Carney on saxophones, turkish clarinet, piccolo, trumpet, percussion and vocals; Channel 23 alumnus Kimo Ball on guitar and vocals; Scott Johnson on drums and vocals; and Allen Whitman on bass and vocals.

Ralph is the uncle of The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney and recently joined them on stage during a performance at the Warfield in San Francisco and collaborated with them on their album Attack & Release.

At the moment, a documentary film has been in the works for the past few years about him called "This Is! Ralph Carney (documentary film)" , which is named after his last album.

The latest band in which he is involved is The Cottontails.