Peter "Pekelo" Cosma, a Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning songwriter and master of Hawaiian slack key, died Wednesday at his home in Makawao, Maui. He was 51.

Cosma’s ex-wife, Robin White, told the Maui News he died of heart failure.

Cosma captured his only Na Hoku Hanohano Award in 2007 when "Ni‘ihau," co-written with Ileialoha Beniamina, won in the haku mele category for the best newly written Hawaiian language composition. He received the 2011 Ki Ho‘alu Foundation Legacy Award in May for his lifetime career contributions to the preservation and perpetuation of Hawaiian slack key.

Born and raised in Hana, Cosma graduated from Hana High School and served six years in the Army.

Known in Hana as a slack-key guitarist, Pekelo was discovered by larger audiences with the release of his debut album, "Going to Hana Maui," in 1992. The "discovery" of a young Hawaiian man who played slack-key guitar and sang mostly Hawaiian-language songs at a time when some island radio stations were going 100 percent "Jawaiian" made him a welcome newcomer to Hawaii’s music scene.

However, while some hailed him as "the new Gabby" (Pahinui), Cosma never claimed to be more than a Hawaiian musician playing and singing the music he loved.

He released a second album, "Pekelo’s Maui," in 1994.

An anthology of songs from those first two albums was released in 2010.

Cosma addressed contemporary issues in 2007 with two songs on his "Hana by the Sea" album, the last of his new recordings. "Na Wiliwili Eha" described how an introduced species of gall wasp was devastating indigenous wiliwili trees.

"Cry for a Nation" denounced the building of "castles on the beaches" while Native Hawaiians "are left homeless and ignored." What will happen to the Hawaiian people, he asked, "now that we’re in foreign hands?"

Cosma is survived by five children, Aron Boothe, Nicholas Cosma, Sarah Cosma, Nakama Cosma-White and Ella Cosma-White; four brothers, Patrick, Steven, Manuel and Leroy; and a sister, Maddie Halekahi.

Services are pending.