Daniel Ho says he was surprised as anyone yesterday afternoon when “;Masters of Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Volume 2”; was named winner of the 2010 Grammy Award for best Hawaiian music album during the un-televised portion of the awards show in Los Angeles. Never mind that it was the fifth time in the six-year existence of the Hawaiian music category that a compilation was the winner and that Ho has co-produced four of them.

“;There's no way to predict which way it is going to go,”; Ho said during a short telephone call.

He described the album as “;a team effort”; with his producer partners George Kahumoku Jr., Paul Konwiser and Wayne Wong, and noted that it contains performances by falsetto vocalist Richard Ho'opi'i and steel guitarist Bobby Ingano as well as slack-key masters Dennis Kamakahi, Sonny Lim, Kawika Kahiapo and co-producer Kahumoku.

The win was Ho's fourth as producer and fifth overall; he made history last year when he and Tia Carrere became the first to win the Hawaiian music Grammy as performers (when a compilation album wins, the award goes to producers and not artists).

Konwiser and Wong are now four-time Grammy winners. Kahumoku, who was not credited as a producer of the 2006 winner, now has three.

The compilation beat “;He Nani,”; Carrere and Ho's follow-up to their Grammy winner of last year, Ho'okena's impeccably Hawaiian “;Nani Mau Loa”; and Amy Hanaiali'i Gilliom's “;Family & Friends of Hawai'i,”; a collection of vocal duets set to mainstream pop orchestral arrangements.

“;We're going to continue to do the best music we can, do our best (in all areas) and do it for the right reasons,”; Ho said. He said he's working on another “;beautiful album”; with Carrere and several projects with other artists.