Almighty ShuHorn, Private Hearing, 1991
PERSONNEL:
Sean Nichols: drums
Al Hahn: bass, vocals
Rick D’Anjolell: guitar, vocals
TRACK LISTING:
Side A
(Acoustic, produced by Dave Smith and Almighty Shuhorn)
Without Her
Dead Flowers
Side B
(Electric, produced by Jim Femino)
Penn’s Madonna
Harry Reasoner
Almighty Shuhorn singer-songwriter Rick D’Anjolell and I got to be good friends in the early ’90s. I remember going to a Halloween party in NYC with him, after which we tried and failed to see a comet in the skies of Sunnyside. His band and my band at the time, Tang S’Dang, were both “signed” to New Jersey-based August Records, and we played a gig or two together. (Here’s a 1992 review of one of those shows in the Drexel University Triangle; it was reported that I “seemed real cool”) Back then, Rick lived in Media, PA; he later moved to Wilmington, NC, and became tight with my old pal Kenyata Sullivan and helped found the now-legendary miracle of collective artistic action that was WE Fest. This modest, four-song demo of affable indie-pop was followed by a 7″ single, “No, No, No” b/w “April Turns To June,” produced by Adam Lasus (Yo La Tengo, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. etc.); and in 1992 by a proper CD, Slip It In, released on the aforementioned label, which put out my band’s Bigger & Harder that same year.
Richard D’Anjolell has been a real estate agent in Oak Island, NC, for nearly 25 years, but he’s stayed active musically, most recently in a duo/band with singer/percussionist Shelia Bell named Nowcat. You can hear more of his songs here, and this bio, although not up to date, provides a ton more background on a talented and ambitious artist that never achieved the success he deserved but nevertheless forged a happy musical life for himself.