The winners of the Guitarhoo.com Santamental contest are:

Heather Hamilton of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

Meirav Gavish of Tel Aviv, Israel

Carol Lambert of Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A

Diana Koch of Weert, The Netherlands
Congratulations and have a nice Xmas time.

The Dutch company for fashion accessoiries Blue-co started an exclusive Steve Lukather merchandize project two months ago. The first limited series with embroided badges, Santamental sjawls and handmade jewelry with Lukather guitar picks and strings are for sale during the El Grupo concerts in Holland, Belgium and Germany. After the tour the items will be for sale via the website of Blue-co.

Recently Greg Prato wrote a very possitive review about Luke's Santamental. Check out the Press reviews section for the whole story.

On the Top 10 Classic rock Xmas albums of about.com Lukather's album SantaMental reaches for number 4, right after the Xmas albums of Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix & the Moody Blues. About.com's liner notes on SantaMental: "This 10-track compilation also features Eddie Van Halen, Slash, Steve Vai, and Edgar Winter lending their rock guitar virtuosity -- and on some tracks, their voices -- to traditional Christmas carols."

Steve Lukather's 24/7 Xmas album SantaMental has been re-released by Steve Via's label Favored Nations. The album will also be available by ulfTone Music in Europe. Traditional holiday music be damned, Steve Lukather & Friends' Favored Nations release SantaMental shatters the staid perceptions of conventional holiday fare by playfully bending it on its ear, enjoining it with a delirious and demented sense of fun. Lukather is no stranger to the Favored Nations label. In 2001, his CD No substitutions - Live in Osaka, a collaboration with guitar giant, Larry Carlton, garnered a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album.

As for the meaning of the CD title SantaMental, Lukather reveals, "My wife actually came up with the title. She has a way with words. I thought it was a brilliant title, we all cracked up when we heard it. So putting me in a straight jacket on the cover only makes sense. I'm a mental case (laughs). I'm a complete loony tune, ask anyone who knows me. The title relates to the music in the sense that we took really simple major scale songs and we kind of twisted them all up, groove wise and harmonically and just had fun with the concept. It's hard to record Christmas music in June but we did it (laughs). Gregg Bissonette, the drummer on the record, brought down all of his Christmas lights and a little plastic Santa Claus so we could get a vibe in the studio and it worked."

It doesn't matter whether it's the deep dark of winter or a sizzling summer day, SantaMental is a new holiday record for all to enjoy year after year. So sit back, pour yourself some eggnog or reach for a cold one, and crank up the gift that keeps on giving.

Also check out the Press reviews section for the Favored Nations press bio.

On Twistedradio.com Steve Lukather had an interview for the Bob Rivers Show about the Santamental album. Check out the interview from a hotel room in Hamburg on stevelukather.net

The German guitar zine Gitarre & Bass pays a lot of attention to the Santamental album and Steve Lukather in the December 2003 issue. There's a 3 pages interview with Lukather, with background information about the making of..., made by Clemens Bilan and a series of transcriptions of the Santamental contributions of Vai, Landau, Slash and Van Halen, made by Wolfgang Kehle. More info about the December issue at gitarrebas.de

Unfortunately, a mischief ..... Track 10, which is "Goodbye" was taken off the master from the American licensee due to clearance reasons. Track 10 is a 15 second Sammy Davis Jr.-sample saying "Goodbye Las Vegas - Thank you so much." This does not at all diminish the quality of the album also since Track 10 wasn't a whole track, but more of an interlude.

Thanks so much for your patience and we wish you all great fun with a great album!

The Santamental team.

Hey everyone. Luke here just saying that I am very proud of this piece of work and I hope you dig it as it was a labour of love by myself and all of my friends who made this happen. I am wishing you a very happy holiday and hope this makes your Xmas just a little weirder than normal.

Your humble friend,

Luke