Chinaberry Sidewalks: A Memoir

By Rodney Crowell

Book Overview

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. 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, Chinaberry Sidewalks 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307740978
• ISBN13: 9780307740977
• Release Date: March 2012
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

One of my All Time Favorites

You do not even need to know Rodney Crowell's music life to love this book. As far as autobiographies go, it is at the top of my list and a book that I recommend all of the time when someone is looking for a moving and great read!

Wonderful book!

What I love about this book is that it isn’t all about how he got his break in the music industry. It is one of the funniest, but sad at times, autobiographies that I have ever read. If you like Rodney Crowell, you’ll love this book