Ernie K. Doe

Cursed to be a one-hit wonder thanks to the epochal 1960 smash of “Mother-In-Law,” it even overshadowed Ernie K-Doe’s work on this stellar 1971 soul album, an album nearly lost to time. Here the outsized New Orleans personality (and future radio eccentric) delivers a standout set of Allen Toussaint tunes, his voice revealing a pathos far beyond the punchlines and catchphrases. Yes, “Here Come the Girls” might conjure images of an all-nude revue, but it’s secretly one of Toussaint’s mightiest productions, flipping from a military march to triumphant second-line strut with nary a beat dropped, topped off by some of the man’s finest horn charts. And Doe’s reading of Toussaint classics like “A Place Where We Can Be Free” and “Who Ever’s Thrilling You (Is Killing Me)” are downright definitive. Who doesn’t admire that eloquent vision of freedom – defined by Toussaint– as being “where the sound of the music/and the sound of the strangers/all begin to form/one big jubilee”?