Tina Schlieske: "I've become this internet whore."

Ever wonder what happened to Tina Schlieske of Tina and the B-Sides? Six years after the band broke up and the singer left town, she has recorded a roots-gospel-country debut with an array of cool L.A. session guests--Elvis Presley guitarist James Burton (watch Tina's video), X drummer D.J. Bonebrake, singer Garrison Starr, and more. Slow Burn (Movement Records) also features Schlieske's catchiest song in years, "Slow Down," in which the vocal powerhouse slips gingerly in and out of soprano to tell a loved one, "Time to stop your running around." Schlieske, who performs on Saturday at First Avenue, has slowed down herself somewhat. "These songs took me forever," she says, speaking over the phone from Santa Barbara, where she lives near the ocean. "I think I went into a bit of a shock after the B-Sides broke up because that was my family for about 15 years...

"Songs take so much longer to mature now." Schlieske also took other gigs; in 2001 she fronted Stevie Ray Vaughan's old band Double Trouble. Now she gigs around southern California and stays close to her sister, longtime backup singer Laura Schlieske, whose band plays every Friday at the James Joyce pub in Santa Barbara. Tina returns to the Twin Cities at least twice a year to play concerts with her beloved cover band Lola and the Red Hots, usually timed to the annual Pride celebration and Thanksgiving at Bunker's. ("That's a fun tradition," she says of Bunker's Turkey Day. "It's just an excuse to leave the family early type of thing.")

Meanwhile, the former Sire Records signee finds the indie world increasingly navigable in the online age. "To me, it's so exciting how easy your music can get out there," says the new Myspace user, who finds fans in the Netherlands and Japan through her website. "I've just become this internet whore."

(Tina Schlieske CD-release show with Garrison Starr on Saturday, November 12 at First Avenue; 612.332.1775)