Chinaberry Sidewalks

Synopsis

the Only Child Of A Hard-drinking Father And A Holy Roller Mother, Rodney Was No Stranger To Either Barroom Brawls Or Pentecostal Sermons. Though Anguished By Their Violent Predilections, He Adored His Epilepsy-racked Mother, Who Scorned Boring Preachers And Improvised Wildly When The Bills Went Unpaid. And He Idolized His Blustering Father, A Honkytonk Man Who Took His Son To Hear Hank Williams And Johnny Cash, And Had Him Playing Drums In His Band At Age Eleven.

shot Through With Neighborhood Capers, Raggedy Friends, Hilariously Awkward Adolescent Angst, And An Indelible Depiction Of The Bloodlines He Came From, chinaberrysidewalks Vividly Recreates Frontier Houston, Where Icehouses Sold Beer By The Gallon And Apocalyptic Hurricanes Were A Fact Of Life. But At Its Heart This Is Crowell’s Tribute To His Parents And Their Troubled Yet Ultimately Redeeming Romance. Wry, Clear-eyed, And Generous, It Is, Like The Very Best Memoirs, Firmly Rooted, Never Dismissive, And Truly Fulfilling.

from The Hardcover Edition.

publishers Weekly

singer-songwriter Crowell's Upbringing In Texas Had All The Prerequisite Elements Of A Hardscrabble Country Music Story--drinking, Guns, Fistfights, Fierce Spankings, Infidelity, Pentecostal Preachers, Fishing, Love, Hate, Laughter, Tears, Sex, Drugs, And Of Course, Music. But Crowell's Storytelling Abilities And Narrative Flair Elevate This Book Far Above The Average Music Memoir. Born In 1950 To A Blue-collar, Hard-drinking, Country-singing Father And Religious Mother, Crowell Lived In Jacinto City, East Of Houston, In A Shoddily Constructed House Cursed With Leaks, Mosquitoes, And Vermin. He Recalls Hurricanes, Fishing Trips, Rock Throwing Fights, And Bow-and-arrow Mishaps, All With The Enthusiasm Of A Hyper 10-year-old Pedaling At Full Speed (something He And Neighborhood Kids Did When Following The Mosquito Dope Truck, A Ddt Spraying Vehicle That They Chased On Their Bicycles). Crowell Touches On His Early Musical Influences, Including A Hank Williams Concert When He Was Only Two, And An Outdoor Show By Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, And Johnny Cash In A Thunderstorm, As Well As His First Time Playing Music With His Father's Band. It's Not Music That's At The Heart Of This Book, However, But His Loving And Turbulent Relationships With His Parents And Their Often Strained But Deep Love For One Another. (jan.)