Last April, the Historic New Orleans Collection published Ben Sandmel’s Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans, a biography which chronicles the flamboyant New Orleans icon’s turbulent and tremendous time atop the city’s throne. A must-read for New Orleans music and R&B aficionados, the book was recently nominated for a Living Blues award from Living Blues Magazine in its Blues Book of the Year category. For Sandmel, the nomination reunites the author with the publication that in 1976 gave him his first byline.

Though K-Doe’s calling-card, “Mother-in-Law,” captivated a young Sandmel, the spark that fueled his K-Doe fascination was the fiery singer’s late-career resurgence, beginning with opening of the Mother-in-Law Lounge in 1994. Largely written off as a “one-hit wonder” with an over-sized ego, in the wake of K-Doe’s crowning achievement — “Mother-in-Law” reached number 1 on both Billboard’s Hot 100 and R&B charts in 1961 — Ernest Kador Jr. struggled mightily and worked tirelessly in his quest for another triumph. With each attempt, the prize proved evermore illusive, and K-Doe’s grip on reality slipped further and further away from him. In the late-’80s, K-Doe’s crisis left him depressed, bankrupt and sleeping in the streets until Antoinette Fox, a one-time barmaid whose acquaintance K-Doe made a decade earlier, came to the fallen star’s aid and cleaned up his act. Antoinette remained at K-Doe’s side until his passing in 2001, and in that time she spearheaded the opening and oversaw the operations of the Mother-in-Law Lounge, reignited Ernie’s spirit, and restored his legend. For a deeper look into one of New Orleans’ most intriguing, complex and beloved performers, tune in below…

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