Merry Christmas is the title of Wilfrid Buttigieg’s latest release. The album features 14 tracks in total, all of them popular Christmas songs that Buttigieg performs on pedal steel guitar, whose particular sound gives the familiar melodies an interesting new twist.

The 68-year-old musician has been playing the instrument since 1971 and is quite possibly the only pedal steel guitar player on the island. Prior to his latest release, Buttigieg had released A Pedal Steel Guitar Collection, an album featuring a varied selection of country, pop, latin and jazz hits interpreted on pedal steel guitar.

Music has been a big part of Buttigieg’s life ever since he first started playing guitar when he was eight years old. He joined his first band, The Hot Shots, in 1961, and since then he went on to play with several other bands, among them the Ekosonics and Main Item, at some of the top nightspots on the island.

His best-known recording is Selmun, a composition by Victor Fenech, which Buttigieg played on classical guitar. In 1979, he was appointed classical and modern guitar teacher at the Johann Strauss School of Music in Valletta, which post he held until his retirement from teaching in 1997. The end of that chapter was the beginning of another when, that same year, Buttigieg opened Knight Music in Ħamrun.

For more information or to buy the CDs, look up Wilfrid Buttigieg on Facebook.