“Nashville Chrome.”

By Rick Bass. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 256 pages. $24.

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Back when Elvis was a scrawny teen dreaming of becoming a gospel singer, he spent two years on tour with the Browns, a trio of siblings whose gorgeous harmonies resulted in a series of country hits in the 1950s.

In “Nashville Chrome,” Rick Bass tells of the Browns’ rapid rise and long fall.

It’s a novel, not a biography — what Bass calls an “attempt to portray the emotional truths” of the Browns’ journey. Despite some missed notes, he largely succeeds.