‘Hands-Off’ Is a Family Affair : New Work: And country singer Calman Hart is getting spooky with publicity.

It’s fine to talk about helping abused children, but it’s even better to raise money to combat the problem while bringing families together for music and recreation.

The “Hands-Off” benefit Sunday at Vista’s Moonlight Amphitheatre will do just that, raising money for Casa de Amparo, the Oceanside-based service organization for battered children.

The gate opens at 1 p.m., and entertainment begins at 2 p.m. with performances by area children’s groups, including Dance Unlimited, Kid’s Company and Company C. Their presentations will set the stage for performances by two local, award-winning music acts that the kids would do well to emulate.

Singer-songwriter Deborah Liv Johnson--a 1992 San Diego Music Awards triple-nominee in the Best Solo or Duo, Best Folk or Acoustic, and Best Independent Album categories--opens the “older kids” portion of the concert with an hourlong set at 3:30 p.m. She’ll be followed to the stage by Bay Area singer-songwriter Nikki Rupar-England, who wrote the event’s theme song. Closing the affair is the popular local band, Bordertown, 1992 San Diego Music Awards double-nominee in the Best Independent Album and Group of the Year categories.

Other diversions include preconcert games and skits by members of the SDSU Clown Club. Families are encouraged to picnic on the grounds, and various health-conscious foods and refreshments will be available.

Randy Rupar of 4-R Productions, organizers of the “Hands-Off” benefit, is confident that the event will be a success.

“I wish all business could be this easy and enjoyable,” Rupar said. “We’ve had a lot of cooperation from sponsors and the electronic media, and we’ve blanketed San Diego with fliers. Everyone seems to be very excited about the event, and we expect a big turnout. And Casa de Amparo will get all proceeds, after expenses.”

Tickets for adults are $6 in advance, $7 at the door. Children 2 to 12 pay $3 in advance, $3.50 at the door. Children under 2 are free. Advance tickets can be purchased at the Moonlight Amphitheatre box office (1200 Vale Terrace Drive, Brengle Terrace Park); the Encinitas Community Market; Natural Choices and Vista Records and Tapes. For more information, call 945-1050.

Casa de Amparo, by the way, will be the beneficiary of still more singer-songwriter largess next month. Kenny Rankin, Karla Bonoff, and Mike Wolff (music director of the Arsenio Hall show) will perform an Oct. 25 benefit at the Belly Up Tavern. The show will serve as a kickoff for the Harmon Contract/Tony Gwynn Celebrity Golf Classic on Oct. 26 at Aviara Golf Club at the Four Seasons Resort in Carlsbad, with proceeds going to Casa de Amparo.

If local singer-songwriter Calman Hart doesn’t become the force in contemporary country music that he deserves to be, it certainly won’t be for lack of public-relations moxie.

Hart’s local brain trust recently mailed press packets to 30 radio stations in the Western states. Enclosed in an orange folder is a clove of garlic wrapped in black tissue and bearing the words “vampire repellent.” Another warning to “guard your baby” (as in sweetheart) accompanies the lyrics--printed on orange paper--to “A Vampire Got My Baby (A Cheatin’ Song).” That’s the closing track on Hart’s critically acclaimed debut CD, “Red-Eyed and Blue,” and his upcoming single. If you still don’t get it, it’s all a Halloween tie-in.

GRACE NOTES: Not surprisingly, tonight’s solo-acoustic Neil Young concert at Embarcadero Marina Park South is sold out. Ticket sales for the concert, which also features acoustic-blues artist John Hammond Jr. and an acoustic set by the band James, got off to a brisk start weeks ago when the gig was announced. To accommodate the demand, promoters Bill Silva Presents temporarily replaced the cabaret tables at the 4,400-seat, open-air venue with rows of seats. The extra 200 seats produced by that move were quickly snapped up, bringing ticket sales to 4,600. By comparison, Tracy Chapman, who became a sensation in 1989 when she won three Grammy Awards, drew fewer than half that number to last Friday’s show. . . .

Ice-T’s metal band, Bodycount, has been added to the Sept. 30 Guns N’ Roses/Metallica bill at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. Faith No More, which was scheduled to open the show on the original August date, had to bow out of the new booking due to a scheduling conflict. . . .

Burt Bacharach will not be performing at Humphrey’s this year. The Grammy- and Oscar-winning songwriter-composer postponed a July 17 date at the Shelter Island venue to play a major show in Hawaii, rescheduling his local appearance for Oct. 2. New scheduling conflicts have scuttled that gig as well.

BOOKINGS: (Tickets for the following concerts will be sold at all TicketMaster outlets unless otherwise specified.)

Evergreen storyteller and songwriter Utah Phillips performs Sunday night at the Folk Heritage Auditorium, at 215 Ninth St. (at Winston School in Del Mar). BaRaykSupkuy, a duo that performs the music of the Andes, will play the same venue Oct. 3. Call 436-4030. . . .

On Oct. 1, the “Antone’s Texas Blues Revue” at the Belly Up Tavern will feature Kim Wilson and Lou Ann Barton, backed by the Antone’s House Band; the following night, funkster George Clinton (no relation to Bill) brings Bootsy Collins and the P-Funk All-Stars to the Belly Up. . . .

A triple-header featuring the Ramones, Social Distortion and Overwhelming Colorfast is booked into the Starlight Bowl for Oct. 17. Tickets ($20.50 advance, $21.50 night of show) go on sale Monday at 3 p.m. . . .

Two upcoming concerts promise to draw radically different crowds to SDSU’s Open Air Theatre. On Oct. 18, the Black Crowes plays the amphitheater (on sale at 3 p.m. Friday); and on Nov. 1, a blockbuster country show brings Travis Tritt, Marty Stuart and the great multi-instrumentalist Mark O’Connor (on sale at 10 a.m. Friday).

CRITIC’S CHOICE

Up Close and Personal

Flatten Manhattan was nominated in the Best Alternative Rock category of the 1992 San Diego Music Awards, but that description falls far short of capturing the quartet’s mix of contemporary funk, street-rap, and snap-tight instrumental interplay.

You can see and hear what a number of San Diegans are raving about when the band plays the Belly Up Tavern tonight at 9. Admission is $4 at the door.