Her brother might have a contempt for music websites, but Tyka Nelson loves them.
"I posted some songs on MySpace, and right away people started asking, 'Where can I get a CD?' " recalled Nelson, who's Prince's younger sister.
After a 16-year hiatus from recording, Nelson has returned with "A Brand New Me," a disc that blends her family-bred knack for funk and pop with her newfound gospel base.
Nelson, 48, was initiated into the secular music business when Chrysalis Records issued her 1988 album, "Royal Blue." After an independent 1992 record, Nelson said she "started living a normal life" in Minneapolis raising her two sons, President and Sir (nobility apparently runs in the family).
"I always kept music in my life, though," she said. "It finally got to where I had some songs I couldn't get out of my head."
Working at Sir's home studio, Nelson created a record that echoes her brother's more experimental '80s work, with synthesizer-laden atmospherics and layered vocals that range from purrs to screeches. Lyrically, though, the songs all have a spiritual theme.
"I went to church for a long time, then I stopped going during a period in my life, but then I started going again -- that's where the inspiration for this record comes from," said Nelson, who attends Faith Pentecostal Church in Bloomington.
Prince's only full-blooded sibling, Nelson said she sporadically talks to her brother by phone but has not seen him much since the 2002 death of their mother, Mattie. "We're both so busy and lead such different lives," she said.
