Steve Wariner, who celebrates his birthday on Christmas Day, is proud to be included in the PEOPLE Country Special “Free Holiday Music” feature in the current issue (December 2010), on stands now.

Each of PEOPLE’s Country Special issues contains a 2-page feature with photographs and information on 7-10 new tracks by different artists. Each track is available as a free download on iTunes ( www.people.com/free). The December issue’s playlist is dedicated to holiday music, and Steve’s contribution is “Deck the Halls” from hisGuitar Christmas album. The instrumental collection of Christmas standards arranged, recorded, and produced by Wariner was inspired by holiday gatherings hosted by his mentor and friend, Chet Atkins.

“Everyone would sing and play and remember those beautiful melodies from our childhood,” Steve recalls. “I wanted the album to convey the warmth and intimacy of those picking parties, so the listener will feel as if I’m sitting in their living room playing for them.”

Among the holiday standards included on the CD are “White Christmas,” “Silent Night,” “Winter Wonderland” and “The Christmas Song.” A GRAMMY®-winning guitarist, Wariner played several different guitars on the CD, matching certain guitars with particular songs and musical styles to create a broad landscape of aural textures and colors. Among the guitars he used are a handmade Hascal Haile classical guitar, the Gibson Chet Atkins Country Gentleman model (1989), which had belonged to Chet, an Olympia dulcimer, a Tacoma Papoose, and Wariner’s own model Takamine acoustic guitar.

Wariner’s next project, a followup to his GRAMMY-winning My Tribute to Chet Aktins, is another instrumental collection, Guitar Laboratory, due in stores on February 8th.

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