Fans of British blues/rock band Cherry White are in for a treat with First Light, a new EP from the band’s bassist, Ralph Beeby, aka Ralph Beeby & The Elephant Collective. In September 2017, the début single, Animal, was released and the remaining four tracks of the EP were released in January 2018.  Not knowing quite what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised by the deep resonance of Ralph’s voice and the counterpoint from the virtuoso performance on guitar, accompanied by raw, blues rhythm.

Before you read on, Ralp is giving a FREE download of “Powerless”, to Angry Baby readers. If you’re not already subscribed to Angry Baby, just pop the email address that you’d like it delivered to here and it will be on its way to you straight away, together with a bumper collection of music that has been shared by Angry Baby. The music comes from outstanding artists that you may not have heard before. With a mix of rock, pop, folk…you name it…there’s bound to be something new that floats your musical boat, and all for free! What’s not to like about that?!

Ralph’s vocals on ‘First Light’, the title and opening track of the EP, instantly made me think of Johnny Cash’s famously deep voice but on further listening, Nick Cave also came to mind.  ‘First Light’, both as a coherent EP and a track, has a fabulous earthy, raw, blues rhythm that gets you up out of your seat from the first bar.  The vocals match this perfectly.  Three minutes in and the blues beat moves into a more frenetic, almost flamenco rhythm and the most glorious Spanish style guitar instrumental follows before coming back to the blues towards the end.  As an opener, the track sets the scene and leaves you desperately wanting more.

The second stand out track from First Light is ‘Little Man Rattling His Plastic Sabre’.  This track deserves to be heard everywhere, for it’s angry protest against the world we find ourselves in today.  Setting out it’s stall right from the off with lines such as “white middle class privilege”, the image of a little man “waving his plastic sabre” is a not so subtle look at the schism of our world and works equally on both sides of the Atlantic or indeed, Europe.  This track, as does the EP as a whole, grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let up until the end.  The last words of this track are “no more” but I sincerely hope that we hear a lot more from Ralph Beeby & The Elephant Collective in years to come.

First Light was released in January 2018. Get your copy here.

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