“An absolutely essential Gulf Coast read.”
Ernie K-Doe
The R&B Emperor of New Orleans
by Ben Sandmel
with a foreword by Peter Guralnick
Journalist Ben Sandmel takes readers backstage in this intimately framed biography of the self-crowned Emperor of the Universe, featuring exclusive interviews with Ernie, his wife, Antoinette, and more than a hundred musicians, friends, and family members.
Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans
HNOC 2012
hardcover • 8" × 10" • 285 pp.
103 color images; 42 b&w
ISBN 978-0-917860-60-7
$39.95
In May 1961, one tune was sitting pretty atop both the R&B and pop charts: “Mother-in-Law” became the first hit by a New Orleans artist to rule black and white airwaves alike. Ernie K-Doe was only 25 years old, and his reign was just beginning.
Born in New Orleans’s Charity Hospital, K-Doe came of age in a still-segregated South. He built his musical chops singing gospel in church, graduating to late-night gigs on the city’s backstreets. He shed his surname, Kador, for the radio-friendly tag K-Doe. He coined his own dialect, heavy on hyperbole, and created his own pantheon, placing himself front and center: “There have only been five great singers of rhythm and blues—Ernie K-Doe, James Brown, and Ernie K-Doe!” Decades after releasing his one-and-only chart-topper, he crowned himself Emperor of the Universe. More than 10 years after his death, lovers of New Orleans music remain his loyal subjects.
In its broad outlines, K-Doe’s story parallels that of his beloved, beleaguered city. He rose, fell, and rose again, weathering storms and lingering long after most considered him down for the count. In the end, he literally rose from the dead: an eerily lifelike statue of K-Doe held court at his castle, the Mother-in-Law Lounge, for years after his 2001 passing.
Journalist Ben Sandmel takes readers backstage in this intimately framed biography, with exclusive interviews with Ernie, his wife, Antoinette, and more than a hundred musicians, friends, and family members. Volume two in the Louisiana Musicians Biography Series, Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans was named one of Kirkus Reviews’ top one hundred nonfiction books of 2012, Living Blues magazine’s Best Blues Book of 2012, and Humanities Book of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.
Awards and honors
Top 100 nonfiction books of 2012, Kirkus Reviews
Best Blues Book of 2012, Living Blues magazine
2013 Humanities Book of the Year, Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
REVIEWs AND PRAISE
“Ambitious, but never overstated in its oversized and eye-poppingly gorgeous hardback that brims about the singer who called himself ‘Emperor of the Universe.’”
“A vital, essential addition to the shelf of great books about New Orleans. Despite a multitude of personal faults, K-Doe emerges here as hilarious, complex and indomitable—a larger-than-life character altogether worthy of inclusion in the pantheon of his city’s oversized musical titans.”
“For K-Doe fans, New Orleans music fans, and those just interested in the sometimes bizarre story of a Big Easy legend, Sandmel has provided a very tasty dish.”
Associated Press
“It’s a deeply researched and exquisitely drawn portrait of not just the singer’s ‘years trudging in torment’ . . . but of his relationship to the city that made him who he was.”
Los Angeles Times
“This is essential reading for those interested in the unique culture of New Orleans.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“With passionate R&B-detective research and eyewitness accounts from local legends like Dr. John and Allen Toussaint, Ben Sandmel vividly captures K-Doe’s wild rise out of poverty, the riches on his many 45s and his long, strange rebirth as a Crescent City treasure.”
Rolling Stone
“Much more than a biography of a New Orleans music eccentric, this perspicaciously researched book encapsulates the spirit of a city that honors the wisdom of its weirdos. . . . Packed with rare photos and gorgeously produced by the Historic New Orleans Collection press, this volume will transport you to the liveliest city in America—a trip all music fans should frequently take.”
NPR
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