“He Said She Said” — the album and the live show — began with 1 e-mail, then another, then another, which in turn led to a flood of correspondence between blues-rocker Sue Foley and roots-rocker Peter Karp.

These e-mails, exchanged while both were on the road, each doing their own separate tours, eventually became the inspiration for a batch of songs that Foley and Karp recorded for their recent duet album, “He Said She Said.”

In fact, many of the lines in the songs were lifted directly from their personal correspondence. The album, as a whole, reads like a dialogue between 2 people who are forming a friendship, and then a relationship. And the songs take the listener through the various ups and downs of a romance.

The songs explore such stages as infatuation, lust, fear, regret, fighting, joy, loneliness, anger, laughter — and also explore how the tragedies of life can get woven into the dynamic: Karp suffered a personal crisis over the year-long e-mail dialogue between the 2. “I had a death in my family — I sat there with someone who was very dear to me, and watched them die,” says Karp, who comes to The Ark with Foley on Monday.

“My notes to Sue during that period were a real lifeline. Having her to talk to was a life-saver, and some of those emotions made it into the songs, as well,” says Karp during a conference-call interview with Foley.

While Foley didn’t suffer such a loss, “I was doing some pretty hairy touring during that period, and that was hard, because when I’m away from home that much, I really miss my 13-year-old son,” she says. “That’s always difficult and stressful for me to be away from him.”

Their letters also covered a common experience for touring musicians — the loneliness of life on the road.

“Sometimes, when you’re writing to someone you don’t know that well, the notes can take on a life of their own, and you may open up more than you would to someone you know really well,” says Foley — who, since the early 1990s, has earned a rep as a sensual but sizzling Texas-blues guitarist and sultry singer with a seductive singing voice. But she also spices things up by adding soul, rock, folk and even flamenco to her musical roux.

Foley is a Canadian native who spent several years in Austin, Texas, establishing herself in that city’s blues scene before moving back to Canada in the late ‘90s. She now lives in Perth, Ontario.

Karp, meanwhile, spent most of his formative years in New Jersey and southern Alabama, so he describes his own rootsy mix as a “Yankee-Rebel” juxtaposition.

Listen to a selection of songs from “He Said She Said” :

But back to the key question. Since these autobiographical songs were born out of a long correspondence between the 2, and since the album essentially tracks the evolution of a relationship, we have to ask: Are Karp and Foley a couple?

“We get asked that a lot,” says Foley with a laugh. “And not just by journalists — people at shows ask us that, too.” But then Foley plays it coy, adding, “People will just have to listen to the record and come to their own conclusions.”

Karp is also cagey on the topic. “If people are looking for a happy ending, well, all I will say is that you’re just seeing the beginning.”

Much of the music on the album is grounded in bluesy / roots rock / folk rock styles, and showcases Foley’s barbed and blistering Telecaster riffs as well as Karp’s sometimes-snarling slide guitar work. But some songs turn down the volume in favor of a ruminative folkie countenance, while others dial up the twangy country rock quotient.

Peter Karp and Sue Foley performing “Treat Me Right”

It definitely helped the process that Foley and Karp are both steeped in roots rock styles. “I had a real sense of musical simpatico with Peter right from the beginning,” says Foley. “I knew we could do this successfully, because I just had this intuitive feel for where his rhythm is, both when he writes and when he plays.”

Karp concurs. “We’re influenced by a lot of the same people,” he says. “You can’t grow up in the ‘60s and ‘70s without being influenced by the rocking blues that was so prevalent then, and by the great songwriters like Bob Dylan. The whole blues thing, it’s just such a changing form. I almost hear tinges of the blues in almost all music I hear now.”

So, having immersed themselves in this year-long written dialogue, then turned it into a batch of songs, then recorded an album and toured together, what’s next? Will Foley and Karp continue on as the “He Said She Said” duo?

Or, since both admit to being somewhat “alpha” when it comes to songwriting and doing their own thing, is it more likely that the next project for each of them will be solo recordings?

“I think we’re going to keep building on this for a bit,” says Foley. “We’ll see what happens with this record, and with this tour. We have more building to do in terms of working together, and getting the word out about us as a duo.

“But who knows?” she jokes, with a laugh. “The next record could be about the demise.”

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.