Tina Schlieske

TINA AND THE B-SIDES ALBUM 'BARRICADE'

Tina Schlieske, originally hails from Minneapolis, MN and is best known for fronting the band Tina and the B-Side Movement, now Tina and the B-Sides.

As a child of Lithuanian immigrants, she spent her formative years in the Mid West, fertile territory for an inspired teenager to absorb and blend all the local musical influences of rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, blues and dusty Americana. Pursuing every avenue she came across from the glam rock of Bowie and T Rex, the showmanship of Elvis, the soul music of Aretha to the singer-songwriters of Joni Mitchell et al. Tina honed her skills, writing songs and playing every bar, club and festival that would have her.

Endless touring helped her cultivate not only a dedicated following but a distinctive, blues driven and raspingly passionate vocal style reminiscent of Janis Joplin. She released several albums on her own label Movement Records with the B-Sides and soon signed a major record deal with Sire Records in 1996.

The band released two CD’s for Sire, “Salvation” and “It’s All Just The Same”, with their songs featured in commercials and major movie soundtracks such as ‘The Traveller’, ‘Very Bad Things’, and ‘A Simple Plan’. Tina and band shared stages with Lenny Kravitz, The Wallflowers, Indigo Girls and Etta James as well as collaborating with artists like Stewart Copeland and Me’Shell Ndegeocello. During that time, Tina was even asked to play the role of Janis Joplin in Paramount’s “Piece of My Heart” a film about the late singer’s life.

In 1999, and after heavy touring and sale of Sire to Elektra, the band decided to go on hiatus indefinitely. To commemorate their 10 plus years of hard work, they played 2 sold out nights at the legendary First Ave and released a double live CD of the event, “The Last Polka” which was the last release for the B-Sides.

Schlieske moved permanently to California to bring up her family while continuing to travel the country doing solo acoustic shows.

She formed and played with several other bands, Lola and the Red Hots (now Lola and the Red Family Band), Tina’s Elvis and most recently California-based, Tina Schlieske and the Graceland Exiles.

Also during that time Double Trouble (Stevie Ray Vaughn’s band) asked her to tour singing lead and playing rhythm guitar in support of their 2001 album “Been A Long Time”. She garnered rave reviews as the bands front woman touring that summer in the States and Canada with popular blues artist Kenny Wayne Sheppard.

In 2005 Tina released her first solo album produced by Sheldon Gomberg, “Slow Burn” which features such renowned musicians as Don Heffington (Dylan, Emmy Lou Harris), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty), Marc Ford (The Black Crows) and Rami Jaffe (The Wallflowers). To her enduring thrill, she even had Elvis Presley’s guitarist James Burton play on two of the tracks.

In 2008 Schlieske released ‘Evil Gal Blues’, (also produced by Gomberg) an homage to her favorite female blues singers. Covering songs by artists like Big Momma Thornton, Memphis Minnie, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Etta James and Aretha Franklin.

In 2009 Tina did a reunion show with the B-Sides at the Minnesota Zoo Amphitheater and released “A-Sides: The Best Of TBS” on her own label Movement Records to great acclaim.

Besides releasing solo albums and playing in her various bands, Tina has kept busy with helping to run a program called “Sing It Out!” for a non-profit organization called AHA! It’s an out reach after school program for at-risk teens in the community, teaching self esteem and expression through music. Schlieske acts as musical director for the teens as well as a mentor. She has also donated her time teaching songwriting in her son’s elementary school in which they wrote songs about all the subjects they were learning. They even got to go into a studio to record their songs and release it on a CD.

Music is Tina’s lifeblood and she still goes back and forth playing in her different bands in Minnesota as well as in California, with friends, musicians and colleagues “I just love music and need to play it whenever, where ever and with who ever I can!”

Next up for Tina is the release of “Pinned Up”, an EP of cover songs by various Minneapolis artists from her band One Of The Boys as well as the release of ‘Sweet Relief III’ on Vanguard Records on July 9th. Tina contributed a killer rendition of Joe Cocker’s ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. The album also features such great artists as Ben Harper, Jackson Browne, Shelby Lynne, founder Victoria Williams, She & Him, Ron Sexsmith, Rickie Lee Jones and Joseph Arthur.