Aftermath of Sadness: Rosie Thomas

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"I'LL SAY TO PEOPLE, 'You won't believe the footage I shot of Sheila today,'" said indie songbird Rosie Thomas.

Sheila Saputo being the stand-up comic who frequently opens for Thomas.

Sheila rocks a neck brace and Coke-bottle glasses. Rosie favors adorable vintage dresses.

And, suspiciously, the two never appear in the same room at the same time.

"Like on Valentine's Day. There was this one moment, she's waiting for some guy to call, and everyone's laughing, but it's so heartbreaking," Thomas said.

Heartbreak is easy.

What's tough, and where Thomas excels, is to convey the aftermath of sadness — the rainbow that follows the storm. Which she does in a gentle, folkish style frequently compared to Joni Mitchell.

But Sheila's more the wreckage that follows the storm.

"She's so heartwarming to me," Thomas said. "She's really more sad than she lets on. Because she's me! She looks how I feel a lot of the time."

Which you'd never guess from Thomas' phone voice, which flits about like a hummingbird on a sugar high.

"I freak out about everything, I'm a hypochondriac, I want to know all the answers," she said. But when Thomas steps to the microphone, it's a calm wash gently down the stream.

As one her songs notes, "When I sing I lose myself."

That sense of peace is all over Thomas' latest album, "These Friends of Mine," which was spontaneously concocted with the help of longtime pals Denison Witmer, David Bazan and Sufjan Stevens. And her next CD will enlist Iron & Wine's Sam Beam.

Her work clearly flourishes in the company of friends.

And Sheila.

"What I love about Sheila is she overcompensates and talks about how brave she is, but you wonder," Thomas said, "does she look in the mirror and say 'You look horrible, who are you kidding?' Those are the people I'm looking for in life. The outcasts, the people who don't fit in, who think they're not beautiful enough. People who want to go deeper in who they are."

Although, said Sheila's alter-ego, half the battle is "to laugh at ourselves. Not to take it all too seriously."

» Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria; with Over the Rhine, Sun., 7:30 p.m., $19.50; 703-573-7328.

Written by Express contributor Bob Massey

Photos courtesy Rosie Thomas