SAN DIEGO ARTS : Veteran San Diego Folk Singer Sam Hinton Honored

In a sneak attack tribute Monday night at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, folk singer Sam Hinton was honored for the extraordinary gifts of music and folklore he has given the community.

The former curator of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Aquarium-Museum and a veteran of folk festivals from Newport, R.I., to Berkeley, the 70-year-old Hinton has performed hundreds if not thousands of concerts in San Diego since moving here 44 years ago.

In a proclamation read by an aide at the close of Hinton’s concert, Mayor Maureen O’Connor declared it Sam Hinton Day and praised Hinton for bringing “insight to our heritage” and “pure joy and delight” to residents through music.

UC San Diego representatives named the university’s music library The Sam Hinton Folk Music Collection.

Hinton’s fellow musicians, friends and admirers described him variously as “a Renaissance man,” “magical,” “mesmerizing,” and as “a folk singer’s folk singer.” While he has played music constantly since the age of five, the Tulsa, Okla., native (Hinton grew up in Crockett, Tex.) has also worked as a sign painter, snake collector, zoologist, taxidermist, scientific illustrator and university administrator.

The testimonials were a surprise to Hinton, who was told only that KPBS (FM-89.5) wanted to tape a performance before an audience for use as an in-concert recording. Although he has recorded a dozen albums, no one has recorded him for an entire concert.

As always, Hinton gave more that he received, offering two hours of joyous music that had the audience alternately catching its breath and singing along. In his warm, husky baritone, he told a slew of yarns in music, always prefacing a song with an interesting note about its origins.

Accompanying himself deftly on guitar, Jew’s harp, harmonica or accordion, Hinton scaled through history, touching down in 9th Century Ireland, the deck of Captain Charles M. Scammon’s 19th Century whaling ship, or in turn-of-the-century Alabama where blacks sang a wry song of oppression.

From his delicately nuanced guitar accompaniment and elegant blues stylings on harmonica to his low-key knack for getting the audience to sing along, Hinton demonstrated his remarkably rare skills as musician and performer.