Chinaberry Sidewalks: A Memoir

Chinaberry Sidewalks: A Memoir

<p>In a tender and uproarious memoir, singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly of a dirt-poor southeast Texas boyhood.<br> <br>The only child of a hard-drinking father and a holy-roller mother, acclaimed musician Rodney Crowell was no stranger to bombast. But despite a home life always threatening to burst into violence, Rodney fiercely loved his mother and idolized his blustering father, a frustrated musician who took him to see Hank Williams, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash perform. Set in 1950s Houston, a frontier-rough town with icehouses selling beer by the gallon on payday, pest infestations right out of a horror film, and the kind of freedom mischievous kids dream of, <i>Chinaberry Sidewalks</i> is Rodney's tribute to his parents and his remarkable youth.  Full of the most satisfying kind of nostalgia, it is hardly recognizable as a celebrity memoir.  Rather, it's a story of coming-of-age at a particular time, place, and station, crafted as well as the perfect song.</p>