Ray Carmen has been played on NTS in shows including Tilly, featured first on 25 July 2022. Songs played include A Long Way Back Again.

Recording music as a one-man band unto himself, Ray Carmen is one of the select few artists who started out in the DIY cassette underground of the 1980s who are still at it. Beginning with his very first privately distributed demo What The Hell Is That?! in 1986, Carmen has since released numerous home-made cassette, vinyl and CD recordings chronicling his musical obsessions, proving the old adage that even though hardly anyone ever hears him, his tree has been falling in the forest repeatedly for almost twenty years.

During that time he has also sat in on drums as a member of various groups, including Akron-OH rockabilly nutcases The King Dapper Combo, and Kent-OH based orchestral rockers The Witch Hazel Sound. He also played guitar and bass for a one-off project, The Sleigh Ryders, featuring fellow home-tapers James St. Vrrain and Sean Rockoff. Currently he is one third of bubblegum art-popsters Kinski Spiral, featuring Bob Ethington from Akron legends Tin Huey, and folk musician Joe LaRose. Carmen also collaborates with other like-minded musicians from time to time, such as Ken Clinger, Michael J. Bowman, Don Campau, the aforementioned James St. Vrrain, and underground legend R. Stevie Moore.

Still doing solo work after all these years with the release of his forthcoming CD, Old School, Old Fool, Carmen continues to be grand marshal of his own parade, sweating over a hot four track and licking a helluva lot of stamps.

And he’s not getting any younger, either.