Best Bet: Hinton is gone, but festival to go on in Poway
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By PAM KRAGEN - pkragen@nctimes.com | Posted: May 30, 2010 12:00 am | No Comments Posted | Print
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POWAY ---- Although San Diego folk music pioneer Sam Hinton passed away last fall, his legacy lives on next weekend with the return of the annual Sam Hinton Folk Heritage Festival to Old Poway Park.

Hinton spent 56 of his 92 years in La Jolla (where he was a biology professor at UC San Diego), and during his long, productive career he recorded a dozen solo albums (some 200 songs) of American folk songs and instrumental pieces. Following the death of his wife in 2005, Hinton moved to Northern California (where he died last September), but his influence on the local music scene was so important that the San Diego Folk Heritage organization renamed its annual folk festival in Hinton's honor in the mid-2000s.
"It's difficult to overestimate the impact that Sam had on music in San Diego," Dick Jay, chairman of San Diego Folk Heritage, said following Hinton's death last fall. "He founded the San Diego Folk Song Society more than 50 years ago, and it's still going strong. The musical programs that he presented at area schools for dozens of years gave kids an appreciation for traditional music. And he was a mainstay of the San Diego Folk Heritage festivals, so much so that we named our annual event for him."

As a special feature of this year's festival, event host Ken Graydon will perform a tribute to Hinton at 12:30 p.m.

This year's festival, running from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. June 5 will feature live music on the main stage at the park's outdoor Tanya Rose stage. Local folk singer Ken Graydon will emcee the show and perform the opening and Hinton tribute set, with eight other performers presenting 30-minute sets all day.

Also throughout the day, Allen Singer and Dane Terry will lead workshops on "finding your inner guitar" and harmonica-playing. A contra dance will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. in Templar's Hall with live music by Ranting Banshee. And in the Porter House, the Storytellers of San Diego will perform tales for all ages throughout the day, including American Indian tales, train stories, historical tales and stories from south of the border.
For those who want to continue the celebration, there is a $10 evening program at 7 p.m. in Templars Hall where the Storytellers group will perform spooky tales for grown-ups.
Old Poway Park is at 14134 Midland Road in Poway. All festival events except the evening storyteller program are free. Call 858-566-4040 or visit sdfolkheritage.org.