Musician has won respect of critics and peers County native Ellis Paul has become a growing force among singer-songwriters

It’s one thing to have a pile of press clippings, but you’ve really made it as a singer-songwriter when other musicians write songs about you.

Ellis Paul received passing mention in songs by Don Conoscenti and Bob Franke.

His former Somerville, Mass., housemate, Vance Gilbert, wrote “Taking It All to Tennessee” about Paul, who will perform with Jess Klein and Bill Morrissey at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Criterion Theater in Bar Harbor.

Now Kevin So has recorded “Standing in the Shadow of Ellis Paul,” in which he manages to sum up Paul’s biography in a few lines: He’s an award-winning troubadour, folk aristocracy. He’s got a tattoo on his upper right arm of Woody Guthrie. He’s got long, brown hair, recites romantic poetry. He’s got his music in a motion picture, he’s got his music on MTV.

“It’s pretty funny,” says Paul.

Paul, 36, was born in Fort Kent and grew up in Presque Isle, where several generations of his family earned their livings in the potato fields. It’s backbreaking work, he says, “especially taking in the harvest. It’s pretty amazing what they put everybody through to get that done, but now it’s done with machinery.”

Paul earned a track scholarship to Boston College, but blew out his knee when he was 21. After surgery, he picked up a guitar “just to fill in the blank of time.”

“I’m still learning, got a long way to go,” he says. “I feel like the instrument is something that I can make talk now.”

Among Paul’s albums are two BMA Best Folk Album winners, 1994’s “Stories” and 1998’s “Translucent Soul.” Three songs from 1995’s “A Carnival of Voices” were included in MTV’s 1999 season of “The Real World.”

The past year will be a hard one for Paul to top. He performed the national anthem before Celtics and Red Sox games. Of the latter, he says, “The crowd was great, it was a beautiful day and we were playing the Yankees. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”

One of his songs was included in last summer’s hit comedy “Me, Myself & Irene.” Paul’s “The World Ain’t Slowin’ Down” played while Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger rode a motorcycle from Rhode Island to upstate New York, Carrey’s face growing increasingly speckled with crushed bugs as the miles passed.

Paul’s manager is friends with the movie’s directors, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, and passed along his music to them. “They fell in love with that song,” Paul says. “They went out of their way, in a very cool way, to put me in the movie.”

Paul shared space in the soundtrack with Bob Dylan, Hootie & the Blowfish and Foo Fighters. Paul reached a milestone in his career in 2000, releasing the two-CD “Live” set.

In the liner notes, he writes that “Live” gave him “a chance to assemble the acoustic versions of some of my favorite songs and, in doing so, giving them a resting place so I can move on to whatever comes next.”

Whatever comes next is likely to be a continuation of the profound and insightful lyrics Paul has showcased on his seven albums. Folk-blues singer Terry Kitchen praised Paul for “his distinctive beat-influenced writing style of stark, detailed images.”

Some examples: From “Here She Is”: If you could paint her picture, she’d be a Picasso / She’s got a few things out of place. From “The World Ain’t Slowin’ Down”: I didn’t want to lose you / You said you didn’t choose to / It’s just how your karma came, From “Look at the Wind Blow”: There is nothing to do in this town at night / But sit in my car and watch the streetlights / Or stare out the window at the pizza joint / What’s the point? / I wish I could buy my Ford a sail.

Paul says he’s writing the songs and “assembling the innards” of his next CD. “I don’t know if there’s a general theme yet,” he says. “They tend to be about people who are looking for something bigger and better.” Which sounds a lot like the songs he’s written in the past, whether they were focusing on Galileo’s trial for heresy (“Did Galileo Pray?”) or a woman preparing for her first date after a divorce (“When We Begin”). “The lyrics pour out easy,” he says. “Editing them and making them do what you want is the difficult part.”

For ticket information, call 288-5829 or access www.criteriontheater.com.