ERNIE K-DOE: THE BOOK

Ben Sandmel's new biography of the legendary New Orleans entertainer extraordinaire, Ernie K-Doe, is now available and should be considered essential reading for all fans of and obessives about the city's music scene and the exploits of its many colorful participants. Of those, K-Doe emanated a distinctively Day-Glo aura in the course of his planetary pursuits.

The official title of the book, published by the Historic New Orleans Collection, and associated website is Ernie K-Doe The R&B Emperor of New Orleans; and you can learn more about it by hitting that link. Also, the current editon of OffBeat has an nice excerpt.

As a disclaimer, let me say that I am a friend of Ben's and contributed just a smidgen to the massive amount of research he did for this book, which includes a thorough discography and extensive notes. Having gotten numerous reports on his progress over the past few years, I can attest that Ben has dug deep and labored long to do justice to all that was and is great about Emperor K-Doe's mythic life and mind.

I consider this biography to be a vital addition to the small but important body of work about specific New Orleans R&B musicians and performers, including Rick Coleman's impressive tome on the life and career of Fats Domino and New Orleans' place at the inception of rock 'n' roll, Blue Monday; Earl Palmer's slim but insightful reflections on his role as a rhythmic inventor, Backbeat; Harold Battiste, Jr.'s telling memoir, Unfinished Blues (also published by the HNOC); Dr. John's autobiography, Under A Hoodoo Moon; as well as the revealing story of The Brothers Neville.

Read all about it.