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Who: Lisa Moscatiello and Mad Agnes Where: Alden Theatre, McLean When: 8 p.m. tomorrow

Folk musician Lisa Moscatiello. (By Christopher Moscatiello)

Last month, at the presentation of the Washington Area Music Association Awards, Lisa Moscatiello took home four Wammies, for best album, contemporary folk album, contemporary folk group (for her work with the Space Dots) and contemporary folk vocalist.

Moscatiello recalled the night in an interview: "The thing about the Wammies, they're given to you by your peers. . . . So that was very gratifying."

Moscatiello, who has received nearly two dozen of the L-shaped trophies, said, "They look a little bit like bookends, so I can stack them all up, and in the unlikely event that I dust, I only have to dust the one stack."

She is not a one-note performer. She has played in a British folk-rock band (The New St. George), a Celtic outfit (Whirligig) and an electronica duo (Arthur Loves Plastic), and her new album, "Trouble From the Start," could sit comfortably on a shelf alongside a work by an adult contemporary and jazz/pop artist such as Norah Jones.

The album includes Moscatiello's own material; songs by her frequent collaborator, Bev Stanton; cuts from contemporaries such as Baltimore songwriter Linda Smith and D.C. indie rock favorite Karl Straub; and some intriguing covers.

Despite a deep catalogue of her own material, Moscatiello called it "my pet peeve" that many performers feel compelled to sing only songs they have written.

"I've always been drawn to traditional folk music, which, to me, is the ultimate co-writing," she said. "You have thousands of people putting their two cents into a song, and it's very Darwinian. The ones that survive are the good ones."

Her love of collaboration extends to onstage partners. For long-distance touring and coffeehouse shows, she keeps things simple with Fred Lieder on cello; at outdoor festivals and venues such as the Alden, she plays with the Space Dots, as she will tomorrow.

A staple on the local live scene, Moscatiello has played noisy bars and smoke-filled clubs, festival stages and reserved-seating theaters such as the Alden. "I'll play anywhere," she said. "I'll play at a naked festival if they pay me $200."

Not likely. In fact, the woman with "one of the most gorgeous vocal instruments in all of folk-tinged pop" (according to Billboard magazine) confessed to a bout of nerves when it comes to playing the Alden, though she's done so before. "I occasionally feel a little shy on that stage. I look down and everyone's so quiet."

But, she said, "I've found that most of the people who come to see me would rather pay to sit in a smoke-free, talking-free environment. So the Alden . . . that's where I tell my dad to go."

The evening's opening act, Mad Agnes, is a trio from Connecticut that creates beautiful three-part harmonies and plays a variety of instruments. Margo Hennebach, Adrienne Jones and Mark Saunders have been compared to Fairport Convention and Paul Simon.

-- MARIANNE MEYER

The Alden Theatre is in the McLean Community Center, at 1234 Ingleside Ave. Tickets are $16, or $12 for McLean residents. Tickets can be purchased at the theater's box office or athttp://www.ticketmaster.com. For more information about the center and box office hours, call 703-790-0123 or visithttp://www.mcleancenter.org.

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