Tea Party with a Unicorn 

What do you get when a St Louis band teams up with a St Louis author and a Kansas City children’s book illustrator? A face full of awesome, that’s what! 

 

Buckle up and join the fun as a young girl (ie. unicorn) rescues her family from boredom with surprise tea parties and general silliness. Based on true events, it’s fun for the whole family. So dust off that turntable and fasten your seatbelt, because this unicorn is in the house and ready to party!

Is this children’s book a totally unique kid gift? Holy smokes, yes! I mean, when did you last see kid’s books come with a record? The 80s? Now you can have all the fun without big hair or the absence of the internet!

Blah blah details: 8″ square full-color children’s book with read-along / sing-along 7″ vinyl record.

Pretty sure this masterpiece was written by elves, but these goof balls want to take credit:

• Lyrics/Story written by John Simanowitz
• Song written and performed by Yes, Have Some
• Book illustrations by Roberta Simanowitz

John, Jamal & Brennan & Where’s Waldo’s torso

Bren-Bren plays this guitar shown here

About YHS

Multi-instrumentalist Jamal R.S. McLaughlin completed a solo album, Photos From Before, between 2015-2016 under the moniker “Yes, Have Some” while his St. Louis area band Belleview took a break to raise various babies. He wrote, recorded, mixed & performed each part in his basement studio, usually between 9pm & 2am, after putting his kids to bed. Belleview bandmate, Brennan Stamps, re-recorded all the lead vocals because he’s better. They also wrote 2 songs together & recorded 2 cover songs, including a Death Cab for Cutie song called Grapevine Fires. John Hopkins played a few guitar solos & Jamal’s sister, Angelina McLaughlin-Heil, played some cello.

Jamal as maybe an Arabic looking Jeff Lynne? Autographed copies available.

Robin & Jamal after she was gracious enough to re-record her part due to some embarrassing cable crackle

Power of Balance

After Photos From Before was completed, Jamal almost immediately started another project: to record an entire Electric Light Orchestra album, Balance of Power, originally released in 1986, in it’s entirety. As a huge fan of Jeff Lynne’s music & production styles, he thought if it doesn’t turn out well then at least it’ll be a good learning experience. After working on it off-and-on almost a full year, he set an arbitrary deadline, moved it back twice, & finally just said it’s done. Was it worth it?

Like the previous YHS album, fellow Belleview bandmates joined him with Brennan singing & John playing some guitar. Again, Angelina played cello on most songs, & Robin Bettonville Hileman sang on on Getting To The Point (track 3 of the new album). Lindsey Wolfford played an awesome upright bass part on Send It (track 10) & Jamal did all the rest.

 

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