Christmas musical happenings stuffed the calendar in town this month, but there was nothing quite like the holiday wingding at the Lobero Theatre put on by Tina Schlieske, one of Santa Barbara’s most certifiably badass singers (sorry for the French, Santa). In a way, on this occasion, she was bringing a slice of her native turf to her adopted home, as a Minnesotan product long based here, finally bringing the holiday-timed show she’s performed in the Twin Cities for years to this hometown.
An artist who has had brushes with broader fame and a diverse discography ( link ), Schlieske is now 59, a recently anointed grandmother and still alive, kicking and, as seen and heard last week, still with the power to magnetize a room (see Independent story here ).
Returning to the intimate historical embrace of the Lobero after last year’s jazz-flavored show on this stage in the wake of her torchy album The Good Life, Schlieske came out in swinging, semi-holiday-fied mode. The stage was suitably adorned with a resident Christmas tree and decorations, and a certain decorated door, through which musicians — mostly from Minnesota — entered, as if in a running shtick through a 1970s-era Christmas TV variety show.