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books, really at that time. I did it all by ear. The same with guitar tunings, it’s all done by ear and
by trial and error [laughs].

I mean we used to
Raphael, on-stage with David Evans at THE GIG.
read about these
open tunings that
Robert Johnson and
Muddy Waters used
to use, and the
crossed note tuning
that the likes of Skip
James used. I used to
experiment with
those, but then I

thought, well, if you
do that you're
copying. So I was
trying to adapt and
change those
tunings to
something else. I
used to turn this
string up and that
string down, and
just experimenting.
In the end, I came up
with my own alternate versions of these tunings. Maybe people had already discovered them for
themselves, but I can say that I discovered them, and I never copied them from a book or a record.

BiTS: And delightful it is too. Did you have a lot of problems when COVID came along?

RC: Oh, COVID was awful. The pandemic, because unfortunately I’d timed it all wrong. I had my
new CD, “Blue Lies” all set up. It was released in the April 2020, just as lockdown began, and I had
12 gigs that summer to promote it and they were all cancelled. So as you may or may not know,

artists like ourselves, we generally sell CDs at our gigs, but there were no gigs. So I just sold at a
trickle through the website. But luckily, I was able to get the gigs again, you know, but I'd spent
so much money on the promotion and the advertising. You can never get that back.

BiTS: No. That's true.

RC: So that was a big problem for me. It's been selling well, since then and with the help of people
like yourself with airplay, and I'm still gigging now, so I still sell at gigs. I remember reading an
interview with Dave Peabody recently, where he was lamenting the fact that as a solo artist, he's
having trouble getting gigs at festivals. He also said that he's lucky if he sells one CD at each gig.
I’m fortunate in doing a bit more than that, but I can understand him.

BiTS: Raphael, thank you very much indeed for your time, and seriously, I wish I could get to that
gig in Liverpool, but unfortunately, it's a bit far from me. You look after yourself, have a good
time and stay safe. And once again break a leg at the gig with David Evans.

RC: Will do. Thanks ever so much. Ian, you take care, now.

BiTS: Thanks very much indeed.