The emphasis on instrumentals is a reversal from last year, when the multi-artist compilation "Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2" was the only instrumental album nominated among popular recordings by Keali'i Reichel, the Brothers Cazimero, Ho'okena and Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom and Willie K.

Helm was surprised that "Sweet & Lovely," which won four awards at this year's Na Hoku Hanohano Awards, was the only vocal album on the final list. But the phenomenon didn't surprise others, who attributed the nominators' choices to a Grammy win by a slack-key album in the previous round of awards.

In February, "Slack Key Guitar, Volume 2" took the first-ever Grammy presented in the category of best Hawaiian music album. It featured current nominee Lim, John Cruz, John Keawe and producer Charles Michael Brotman, among others.

If observers weren't surprised, however, some were disappointed that albums featuring vocals and songs in the Hawaiian language weren't more fully represented.

The final five nominees won the most votes out of 26 albums chosen by a Grammy committee of Hawai'i-based experts knowledgeable in Hawaiian language and music. Prominent albums included in that group of 26 that failed to make the final five include "Maui" by Hapa, "Welo" by Kaumakaiwa Kanaka'ole, "Ka'ulupono" by 'Ale'a and "Ka'eha Ke Aloha" by Sean Na'auao.

"My concern goes back to discussions we had (with the National Academy) when we originally created the category," said Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts president Alan Yamamoto, a voting member of the National Academy. "There was a lot of discussion about separating instrumentals into a second category.

"The people that weren't from Hawai'i didn't understand that this would happen. But quite a few of us were concerned that it would end up being very much an instrumental category — with slack key or something else — that might take away from the others."

Of this year's list of nominees, Yamamoto said, "I would have liked to have seen a better cross-section."

Slack-key guitar is an important part of Hawaiian music, said Keola Donaghy, an assistant professor in Hawaiian studies at the University of Hawai'i-Hilo, Grammy voter, and Webmaster of the Hawaiian music news, reviews and discussion site www.nahenahe.net: "But the soul of the music is in its language. And as wonderful as slack key is, it's less representative of the rich tradition of Hawaiian oral music than other artists that are recording Hawaiian language vocal tracks. I would've preferred to see more Hawaiian language vocal recordings on the final ballot."

Still, many hope to emphasize the positive effects of Grammy recognition for Hawaiian music.

Hapa guitarist and singer Barry Flanagan lauded the Grammy category as "a great celebration of Hawaiian music getting out into the world," and called any criticism aimed at the new crop of slack-key nominees "negativity."

"I think everyone would probably love to see it more balanced. But when you open things up to 17,000 people (voting), it's a matter of shifting paradigms," Flanagan said. "It's not everybody who lives in Hawai'i and knows Hawaiian music that's voting on what they think. And that really opens up things to a whole other world."

The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Hawaiian music album category in May 2004, following more than a decade of lobbying by Hawai'i-based record labels, producers, musicians and supporters.

The category is part of the Grammy's folk-music field. It is open to vocal or instrumental Hawaiian music albums containing at least 51 percent newly recorded material. Albums released between Oct. 1, 2004, and Sept. 30, 2005, were eligible.

Recordings may be traditional or contemporary with substantial use of traditional elements. The recording academy requires that Hawaiian language be used in a predominance of vocal tracks.

Grammy award winners will be chosen by ballots mailed to academy voting members next week, and tallied in mid-January.

Voting is open to more than 17,000 Recording Academy members. The academy has about 100 Hawai'i-based members.

Awards will be handed out at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. 8. The ceremony will be broadcast on CBS.

"It feels really good to be nominated. Awesome, actually," said kiho'alu musician Lim, who also played on "Slack Key Guitar, Vol. 2." "I'm honored to be among the nominees. I know 'em all. They're all sensational, terrific artists."

"Hopefully, if (the category) draws enough attention, the academy will look at us again one day and create two categories — one for Hawaiian vocal music and one for Hawaiian instrumental music. That'd be nice. ... There's a whole lot of deserving music vying for just this one category."

Helm echoed the sentiment of gratitude. "I'm just so happy to have all this support from people, including the slack-key artists," she said. "I'm proud of just being a nominee and representing Hawai'i."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.