This just in – the Stomp’s Alison Fensterstock with the latest on the future of Ernie K-Doe’s Mother-in-Law Lounge.

Just about a week after deciding that she would close the landmark tavern she took over after her mother’s death last year, Betty Fox has announced that she will try to keep the Mother-In-Law Lounge open after all. The outpouring of support that came after her announcement on June 20 prompted a change of heart, she said.

Read more on NOLA.com, including the details on the upcoming July 5th benefit….

On March 25, 2000, four young New Orleans acts played with K-Doe at the Mother-in-Law Lounge as a tribute to one of their most important mentors. K-Doe loved to teach his children and they loved to learn from their favorite teacher. The bands that night were The Rubber Maids, Egg Yolk Jubilee, The McGillicuddys, Fireball Rockett and Mr. Quintron. (the blurry face underneath Martin Luther King is the Stomp's D Lefty Parker) Photo by Scott Saltzmann

When I think about the Mother-In-Law lounge, I always picture K-Doe singing this song in his club: “Come on Home.”

Ernie K-Doe, Come on Home

I am sorry to say we recently learned of the passing of Floyd Dakil. Our condolences to Floyd’s family and friends.

Although we had not announced it yet- Floyd was scheduled to appear at the next Ponderosa Stomp. We would like to pay tribute the only way we know how- with one of his greatest tracks “Dance, Franny, Dance.”

From his Stomp bio:
Texas rocker Floyd Dakil started out as an adolescent wild man, forming his Floyd Dakil Combo with five other high school sophomores in 1963. In 1964, the combo recorded their first and best-known single for the Jetstar label, the regional hit “Dance, Franny, Dance,” live in front of a crowd at the Pit Club, where they were the house band. They were clean-cut teens in sharp suits who played savage, crazy and loose dance music that still stands out today as one of the hottest sounds to come out of the happening Dallas-Fort Worth ‘60s garage scene. In 1969 Dakil joined Louis Prima’s band as a guitarist and stayed for several years.

Vintage photos courtesy of Floyd Dakil’s MySpace Page

Floyd Dakil at the Ponderosa Stomp 2009 SXSW showcase. © Jacob Blickenstaff

Jacob Blickenstaff has some great recent photos and a rememberance of Floyd Dakil from a 2009 Stomp SXSW performance.

Incredible video from our friends at the Oxford American: Billy Lee Riley honored by his friends and comrades at the Silver Moon club in Newport, Arkansas, on August 30th, 2009. In attendance a roster of Stomp veterans – Sonny Burgess and the Pacers, W.S. Holland (from Johnny Cash’s and Carl Perkins’ bands), Carl Mann (“Mona Lisa and “Pretend”), Ace Cannon (“Tuff”), Dale Hawkins (“Suzie-Q”), and Travis Wammack (“Scratchy”) among others.

Tom Waits once described Alex Chilton as “the Thelonius Monk of the rhythm guitar.” He’s damn right. I heard it all for the first time live in 1986 at the 688 Club in Atlanta, Georgia. I was 22 years old; a kid in a band called Green On Red and we were playing on a bill with him that night. We were positively bourgeois; freshly signed to Polygram Records with an extra van and a rag-tag road crew. We were living high on the hog, man (or we thought so, anyway). Alex Chilton pulled up the gravel drive to the back of the joint in an old Buick Skylark spitting plumes of blue smoke. He took off the shirt he was wearing, shoving it into the back of his Fender Super Reverb amp, and pulled out the one he wore for gigs. He donned a harmonica rack and tuned up his guitar to the harp, all the while looking at his bass player and drummer (Rene Coman and Doug Garrison). He stepped up to the mike and clicked his heels four times. That was it. I don’t know who my fragile busted up little psyche’s influences were at the time; Neil Young, Joe Strummer, David Bowie, Tom Verlaine? They all went out the window at that moment; floated up into the ether and stayed put. Alex has remained. I have forgotten many heroes along the way. Put on “Bangkok” and you’ll begin to understand why this man, this rock and roll song and dance man, can’t be tossed aside. Ever.

Alex Chilton remembered by Chuck Prophet. ChuckProphet.com Blog

King Lloyd

Photo © Syndey Byrd

The President of Soul is gone.