Ernie K-Doe Appreciation

listen/download Mother-in-Law by Ernie K-Doe

To get into the Mother-in-Law Lounge in New Orleans, you have to be buzzed in. I pushed the button even though it looked dark inside, it was a Monday night after all.

‘Are you open?’ I enquired

‘No I’m Antoinette’ came the response.

Ernie’s wife and loyal guardian of all things K-Doe opened the door, plugged in the jukebox and cooked up some franks. We bought beers and wandered the small room. In the corner sits a mannequin of Ernie K-Doe, born Ernest Kador, a flamboyant R'n'B singer who was born, bred and died in New Orleans. The cracks are beginning to show in Ernie K Doe’s face. He died in 2001 and had a well-deserved send off fit for a king with a traditional jazz funeral, after all he was the self-proclaimed 'emperor of the universe'. He's since run for mayor and toured, in his fibreglass mannequin form.

Here's a choice slice of K-Doe, true he made (some) money off his ‘mother-in-law’ (the song went to No.1 in the US in 1961) but Antoinette will tell you, he and his MIL were tight. Well it wasn’t actually his song, it was Allen Toussaint’s, the man behind the Minit label and the musical genius of New Orleans – The Meters and Lee Dorsey, to name just a few, have him to thank for their careers.

Always the king of self-promotion, one of K-Doe's catchphrases was the self-addressed 'you just good, that's all!' I'd say that's an understatement, Ernie K-Doe is brilliant!

Buy some K-Doe music here.