A lot of people say Kekuhi writes and sings songs the way that they used to. No she doesn't. I've ever heard sounds like this. Like the many alternative rock bands of recent years who tired of the sheen and polish of modern rock, she has created a new idiom, and it is going to take some gifted and brave individuals to try and follow in her footsteps. My guess is that it is going to be a while before anyone else goes there.
Lets go back to our little brown spectrum of Hawaiian music.
If we have a dark chocolate on the left and pale cream on the right, Kekuhi is way off to the left somewhere near the deepest, darkest ebony. I get the feeling that there are many voting members of HARA that have a hard time seeing or hearing this color. They want the polish, the ear candy, the perfectly chosen reverb. They want a songstress who produces crystal-clear, shimmering tones. They don't want to crawl into the dirt, the earth that gave birth to the roots of Hawaiian music and all Hawaiian culture.