EASY TO REMEMBER; SINGER-SONGWRITER DIDO'S DEBUT BRINGS HER NAME RECOGNITION.

Byline: David Bloom Staff Writer

For a singer whose sole stage name has a mere four letters, and two of those vowels, folks sure have a hard time with Dido. For the record, and for the pronunciationally challenged, the name rhymes with Fido.

Fortunately, folks have no such problem connecting with Dido's music, as glowing reviews and growing airplay for her debut album, ``No Angel,'' can attest, along with a six-week stay on Billboard magazine's ``Heatseekers'' chart for hot, new and developing artists.

Dido plays Wednesday night at the Troubadour, 9081 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, with opening act Kendall Payne taking the stage at 8 p.m.

``It's going great,'' said Dido, named by her Irish-English parents for a queen of the ancient city of Carthage who killed herself when her love affair with a Roman soldier went awry. ``I'm naturally surprised how supportive everyone is, how nice the press is being. I'm not at the stage where I get smacked every time I put out another release.''

There's not much to smack about. ``No Angel'' is one of the more enjoyable pop albums of the year, with pungent lyrics, engaging mid-tempo music and Dido's rich, husky contralto, which is somewhat like Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan's.

Credit her older brother Rollo of the band Faithless (with whom she previously performed, wrote and toured) for some of the most striking lyrics, she said. When his love life soured, he came up with ``a lot of the bitchier ideas'' in her songs.

``Unfortunately, he's back with his girlfriend, which is disastrous for me,'' Dido said.

Even without her brother's artistically inspiring love woes, Dido is writing steadily for herself, Faithless and another still-unnamed band and will perform two new songs as part of her monthlong U.S. tour that got under way last week.

She also has beefed up her backing band since a showcase appearance in Los Angeles two months ago. Along with the turntable artist and relatively conventional rock band that performed then, she's added another vocalist, a drummer (instead of just percussion) and a keyboardist to create a bigger, harder sound.

``I love singing songs live, it's a whole different experience,'' Dido said. ``At the moment, I'm really enjoying it, though after a month of it I'll be wanting to get back into the studio.''

Along with writing and performing, Dido keeps herself busy closely watching her business affairs. The daughter of an Irish publishing executive, she worked in book licensing before becoming a singer and spent a year studying contract law before leaving law school. She understands how to deal with fine print.

``It's very much a business for me - I run it as a business,'' said Dido, 27, of her career. ``I put people around me that I trust, but everything goes through me. Nothing gets done unless I know about it.''

And the single-name thing that both she and brother Rollo do?

``Well, we do it probably because our last names are boring,'' said Dido, whose surname is Armstrong. ``It's hard enough to remember Dido. If I used my last name, it would just confuse people.''

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Photo: Dido, whose debut album, ``No Angel,'' made Billboard's HeatSeekers chart, is named for a queen of Carthage who died over a lost love.