No Skinny Ties : Paul Sanchez, a folk singer from Port Hueneme, takes his time. His latest release took 3 1/2 years to produce.

Paul Sanchez is as rare as he is ubiquitous. He is a Ventura County native, and thus, an endangered species. He’s also another heard-this-one-before story--one of many local musicians who are really good, also really poor. Sanchez, a folk singer from Port Hueneme, has just released his second album, which is in fact a tape, “Home by Morning.”

While not exactly on the Boston timetable (an album a decade), Sanchez did take plenty of time to finish his latest release. His first one, “Hired Hand,” came out in late 1986.

“I’ve been working on ‘Home by Morning’ for about 3 1/2 years now,” said Sanchez in a recent phone interview. “I went through three different producers before I got to Phil Salazar. So there were a lot of false starts, but that was good because I had time to discard and write new songs and, basically, to get focused.”

The fruits of his labor will be on display at a special album release concert Friday night at 8 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 4949 Foothill Road in Ventura. Suggested donation is seven bucks. Copies of both of Sanchez’s tapes will be on sale.

“I’ve still got about 40 copies left of the first one,” Sanchez said. “That one is self-produced, and at the time, I knew absolutely nothing about recording. Yet, it was a good first effort--but the new one is a lot better. At the gig, the first set will be just me. I play guitar, piano and banjo, although probably no banjo at this show. The second set will be me and Phil Salazar and three other friends, and we’re going to do the songs off the new album. The first song I ever learned was one of my own songs. I don’t know much about other people’s songs, although John Prine is probably the main influence for me.”

Pretty much an acoustic kind of guy, Sanchez probably won’t get a Christmas card from the Edison company this year. And it won’t be so loud your ears will bleed and your head will blow up. There’s not a Warrant cover tune in sight, or earshot, because Sanchez’s music is mellow.

“Well, I think it’s folk music, for lack of a better word,” Sanchez said. “Folk music is becoming more popular, although it really isn’t the job of folk music to be really popular. It’s not about college-educated singers wearing skinny ties singing ‘Tom Dooley.’ I was never into that. Acoustic music, I think, is a more useful term. It’s not electric.”

Sanchez began his quest for poverty when he got a guitar while still a student at Hueneme High (How ‘bout those Vikings?). Then, a few years later, Sanchez got the job he’d been dreaming of--that of writer. But it was a dark and stormy night soon enough.

“I got fired from a really wonderful job,” he said. He had been an editorial assistant in charge of the entertainment section of a local paper. He started taking guitar lessons from Kenny Sultan, whose partner Tom Ball is on Sanchez’s new album.

“Music or writing? For me, it’s music by a huge margin. I’ve been a musician since 1983.”

And he’s been a local far longer than that, so many of Sanchez’s songs reflect life in fast-growing Ventura County, where we now have more traffic jams and less agriculture. One song, “Fourth of July,” describes how the cops will escort you to a place where the great state of California will pay your rent if you shoot off fireworks (purchased in Fillmore) on the beach.

“I really love this county,” Sanchez said. “It’s gotten a lot bigger. I liked it smaller--Southern California has grown too much. I spend a lot of time driving around the county’s back roads, and I really love the ocean. All you have to do is spend a week in Texas to know that Ventura County has the perfect climate.”

Another memorable tune is one highlighting the world view of that seagoing philosopher, Popeye (“I y’am what I y’am”), titled “Do What You Can Do.” Another song, “The Ringing,” is a harrowing musical exploration dealing with the loss of a son.

“That song is about a friend of mine who suffered a terrible experience when his 17-year-old son was murdered.”

And now the Big Question: How does an act get signed out of Ventura County? Talent, perhaps, is incidental. Great local bands such as the Mudheads, Raging Arb & the Redheads, Lion I’s, Durango 95 and Something for Nothing all have the talent, but between them, they could scarcely afford a Dodger cap.

“What I’ve been doing is concentrating on the independent labels. The main thing I need to do is tour more and get out of Ventura County. I play a lot of convalescent homes, do a lot of kids’ gigs, and play a couple of bars. The best thing about all this is the writing and the performing and meeting other songwriters from other parts of the county when I do a festival. The worst thing is the lack of money.”

And now the Important Question: How ‘bout those Dodgers?

“They make me proud to be an American,” Sanchez said.