Grammy nominee George Kahumoku Jr., a Maui teacher and a farmer when he's not producing or performing slack-key music, likens ki ho'alu to crop-raising.

"You plant your seed, hope for good weather and sun, but some seeds land on the sidewalk, others land in the ground," said Kahumoku, who co-produced and performs on "Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar," one of the five contenders for the Hawaiian Music Grammy this year. "You learn how to fertilize your plants, you aim for good roots, and hope that your plants will be strong."

Ki ho'alu roots were planted decades ago, Kahumoku said, and now the crop has matured. The reward: recognition, in the form of Grammys. Slack-key albums have won the category for three consecutive years since 2005, when the first Hawaiian Music award was granted by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, an organization of musicians, producers and music-biz techies.

Will ki ho'alu win again when the Hawaiian music Grammy Award is announced today?

Ki ho'alu is a beloved tradition, and Kahumoku says its popularity shows slack-key guitar has evolved from a backup entity to front-and-center solo instrument, after years as weeds in the shadow.

The fertilizer has worked — but with the fruit has come a side crop of criticism, based on the complaint that the award snubs Hawaiian-language vocals in favor of instrumentals.

However, aside from Charles Michael Brotman's all-instrumental "Slack Key, Vol. 2," which won the very first Hawaiian Grammy, the two more recent compilations have showcased both vocals and slack-key tunings.

"I hope the people don't get mad at us," said Kahumoku, anticipating more hisses if Grammy kisses ki ho'alu again.

And he's not alone.

Three of this year's nominees boast a slack-key orientation, and a fourth prominently features ki ho'alu. So the banter will likely emerge again, depending on today's outcome, when the Hawaiian Grammy is presented at the Los Angeles Convention Center. (For the first time in Grammy's 50-year history, the nontelevised segments of the awards — including the Hawaiian Grammy announcement — can be watched on a live webcast at www.grammy.com.)

AN ESTABLISHED WINNER

"We're just trying to do good, to provide musicians work," said Paul Konwiser, one of four nominated producers of "Treasures of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar," attempting to deflect the anticipated criticism. "Our albums are primarily vocal, with Hawaiian language." If the pattern established over the previous three years holds, the compilation CD will be the award-winner.

Konwiser and his 'ohana founded Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Productions to launch a slack-key music series on Maui five years ago. To date, he said, the project has provided more than $500,000 in compensation to musicians across the state. And for the past two years, compilations produced by Konwiser and associates have taken the Grammy Award. Musicians featured on the two Grammy-winning CDs play again on the nominee this year.

Producer-performer Daniel Ho, a partner in the Maui project with his own extensive recording credits, also produced Tia Carrere's "Hawaiiana" CD, which could be an upset winner this year.

"We do our best and hope for the best," Ho said. He's no longer perturbed by blogs that decry slack-key's dominance.

When the slack key combine won an earlier Grammy, Kahumoku wasn't a producer, so he didn't get a trophy. "But Daniel gave me his; I treasure that a lot," Kahumoku said. If "Treasures" wins this time around, Kahumoku will earn his own gramophone.

A HOLLYWOOD HONEY

Carrere, an Island actress with a Hollywood pedigree — she's been seen on TV recently in episodes of "Nip/Tuck," "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Back to You" — could win over Grammy voters with her album, "Hawaiiana," based on sheer name recognition — and become the focus of the Monday-morning reaction. And she's ready for that.

"For me, this is just a start," she said. "I would love to create a body of work. I've been known as a rock singer, not Hawaiian."

Ho, who is a veteran slack-key performer himself, notes that 85 percent of the backup music for Carrere is slack key.

"This album is our musical journey back to our roots — it touches upon our influences, upbringing and the importance of sharing what it means to be from Hawai'i," he said.

A LEGACY PERFORMER

Cyril Pahinui, a slack-key trouper nominated for "He'eia," has family tradition on his side: his dad is the late Gabby Pahinui, perhaps the master strummer of his generation and widely known among musicians here and abroad.

Pahinui is hungry for the trophy. "For all my years of performing and recording, this is something I wish I could win," he said. "Why I got picked, I don't know, but I'm both happy and sad — happy, because I am continuing the legacy of my father; sad, because my friends like Ledward (Ka'apana) are deserving. He's been nominated, but he hasn't won. We're old-school; we have toured a long time."

"He'eia" is already a local award-winner; it topped the slack-key category in the 11th Hawaii Music Awards, announced last week.

YOUNG AND RISING

Raiatea Helm is the youngest on the ballot, with "Hawaiian Blossom." It's her second appearance in as many years — so she's hardly an unknown. "The recognition is nice; a nomination helps CD sales, and mine have been great," she said.

"Hawaiian Blossom" stands out from the field this year as the only album that doesn't depend on ki ho'alu for its sound. But to hear her tell it, at least, Helm is nonchalant about the competition, as she focuses on an independent career. She self-produced her latest CD, and she's skipping the awards ceremony to prep for her first solo concert tour, beginning this spring.

VETERAN INDEPENDENT

Keola Beamer, a seasoned artist — one of the first locals to record for the national Dancing Cat label, thereby getting the slack sound out there decades before the Grammy category was born — is also bypassing the Grammys, because he's following his heart. He says his nominated album, "Ka Hikina O Ka Hau (The Coming of Snow)," is classical, not Hawaiian music, though it uses ki ho'alu tunings.

Of his outside-the-box CD, he said: "The idea was to find coloration, a palette, to transport the listener and yourself to another realm — if you fully understand. I think the (classical) masters do."

ROOTS OF CONTROVERSY

"I suppose that the first all-instrumental slack-key winner (the Brotman compilation) is what people have come to imagine Hawaiian music is," said Alan Yamamoto, former president of the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts, and a music industry veteran for more than 30 years. "Voters don't always know the music."

Vocals, instrumentals, soloists, groups and compilations are all eligible for inclusion in the one category. If there are vocals, they must be predominantly Hawaiian.

Academy members, who choose Grammy winners, can vote in eight sections, including four categories open to all: song of the year, album of the year, record of the year and new artist of the year. Academy members who live in Hawai'i number only about 100, Yamamoto estimates, so Mainland voters can easily sway the category.

Brotman, the Big Island-based producer of the 2005 winner, believes the Mainland vote affects the outcome, and he thinks the solution is to sign up more Island musicians to NARAS. "I think artists here in this market need to educate voters and participate," he said. "I believe there are 600 members of the Hawai'i Academy of Recording Arts; if most of these people join, there could be a significant difference."

Amy K. Stillman, ethnomusicologist and a professor of American culture at the University of Michigan, specializing in Pacific Islands traditions and dance ethnology, has her own perspective on the continuing debate over who — and what — "deserves" a Grammy.

"One of the gaps I see is the rhetoric coming out," said Stillman. "Hawai'i people are seeing the Grammy as a life achievement award — that longevity should be recognized. (But) the award is supposed to be for artistic excellence, and I would hope that over the next few years, this situation will be sorted out. It's growing pains. ...

"So the question is, how do you educate the (Recording Academy) members, and let them know what artistic excellence means to Hawai'i? That's the missing puka."

Stillman, like many others, points to groundbreaking work to advance slack key done by George Winston with his Dancing Cat label, which distributed Hawaiian music albums nationally and internationally. "He toured slack key, hit the major cities ... smaller towns. That's how you get educated," she said. "It's going to be a harder sell to send the vocal groups out. Yet there is a tremendous hula activity across the United States and in Japan; the record industry needs to recognize and capitalize on this movement. Hawai'i needs to be pro-active outside of Hawai'i."

For now, there still is that issue of ki ho'alu's dominance in the mindset of Grammy voters.

"In a sense, you want to be careful what you wish for," said Stillman. "The (music) industry wished for the category — and now it's getting outnumbered by a voting membership that doesn't necessarily know about the music in the category. It's time to act."

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