Photo by Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Molokai helped "slide" Ehukai in for a win, while Ehukai helped
our Mele Melee winners slide into victory.

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Winner part of
online ‘cyber-ohana’

By Burl Burlingame
Star-Bulletin

Hawaiian music has indeed entered the electronic age. Not only did more than half of our 748 entries in the Mele Melee Na Hoku Hanohano awards contest arrive here via e-mail -- from all over the world -- first-place winner Rick Ermshar haunts Hawaiian music newsgroups on the Internet. He sometimes makes links to starbulletin.com if there's an interesting story that connects to Hawaiian music. Maybe even this story.

We caught Ermshar as he was rushing out the door to go to the awards ceremony last night. "I won?" he said. "Get outta here! I'll be ... aw, go to heck!"

Ermshar, a writer and editor with a way with words, can often be caught on Sunday evenings at Shipley's in Manoa, playing bass with Mike Kaawa and Friends.

"I love slack-key, the pure ki ho'alu," said he. "It's the greatest. I want to tell everyone about it. That's why I'm on-line, letting the rest of the world know about slack-key."

Ermshar actually tied with Kay Lorraine of Honolulu, and then won the coin-toss. Lorraine's initial comment? "Get OUTTA here! Cool!" The similarities don't end there, however.

Lorraine, a film producer and manager of non-profit groups, is also an enthusiastic evangelist for Hawaiian music.

"I don't know how many tapes and CDs I've given away. My cousin, for example, came into town this week and he hasn't been here for many, many years. I took him diving all around the island, and in between, played him Hawaiian music. He got so thrilled with it that I had to give him a bunch of albums!"

Lorraine wasn't attending the awards ceremony. "Too expensive. I didn't win tickets, did I?"

In third place was Tracy Vincent of Kaneohe, who guessed them all correctly except for Album of the Year -- ironically, one of her prizes is that particular album.

Prizes

First prize: $100 and the five CDs of the winners in each contest category

Second prize: $75 and two CDs of the winners in female and male vocalist categories

Third prize: $50 and the album of the year CD