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Amogla Records is an independent blues record label founded in 2001 by guitarist/songwriter/producer Joel Poluck in Brooklyn New York. It was created to release "Mean Blues", Floyd Lee and his Mean Blues Band's debut album. Efforts were made to offer it's twelve original song recordings to several established blues labels but with no takers. Copies of the cd were sold mainly during performances at street festivals and train station gigs around New York City. Only two retail store locations were chosen to carry the Mean Blues CD (Bobby's Happy House Records in Harlem and Lumers Liquors on the upper East side of Manhattan). European distribution was also set up in Denmark and Germany. "Mean Blues" went on to top blues radio charts around the world, receiving glowing reviews with XM Satelite radio Bluesville host Bill Wax declaring it "Blues CD of the Decade."
Amogla Records released three more acclaimed full length albums by Floyd Lee and his Mean Blues Band, (2003's Ain't Doin' Nothin' Wrong - 2004's Full Moon Lightnin' and 2007's Doctors, Devils and Drugs) as well as the soundtrack for " Full Moon Lightnin'" the award winning documentary about the band.
The Amogla Sessions was a promotional compilation cd of twenty one songs by Floyd Lee and his Mean Blues Band offered at film festivals in 2008 through 2010 wherever the Full Moon Lightnin' documentary was being shown. A review in the Pittsburg Post Gazette called the collection of songs a "modern masterpiece."
With the success of this handful of Amogla Records releases, Floyd Lee and his Mean Blues Band were invited to play at blues clubs and festivals all around the US and internationally, including the prestigious Lucerne Blues Festival (Switzerland) in 2004.
"Jaws Of The Black Dog" was the band's only single release in 2014, recorded the previous year.
A second compilation cd "Not For Sale" was released in 2015, limited to one hundred copies, comprised of fifteen songs not present on the "Amogla Sessions."
A division of Amogla Records is Amogla Show Prints which offers original folk art, band posters and photographs that relate to Floyd Lee and his Mean Blues Band.
Band members: Floyd Lee (vocals/guitar), Joel Poluck (guitar/songwriter/producer), Brad Vickers (bass), Sam Carr (drums).
Previous members: Mike Fox (drums), George Beckett (harmonica), Zach Zunis (guitar), Andy Smith (drums)
- Filmmaker John C. Gardiner's 2008 "Full Moon Lightnin'" feature documentary showcased the bands travels, recordings and personal lives. It received top honors at film festivals in Canada and the US including "Best Of The Fest" at the Tucson Film Festival and won the Living Blues Award for Best Blues Documentary in 2009's readers poll (Living Blues Magazine). Promotional packaging of the film included an Amogla Records cd soundtrack*
The original Amogla Records logo was of a howling wolf drawn by draftsman/cartoonist John Arthur Luxton in 1932 (grandfather of Joel Poluck). A second logo was created in 2006 depicting a Morriseau inspired wolf and sun.