Rodney Crowell has lived an artist’s life. Texas born and bred, he was raised on a steady diet of authentic country music. His father, a frustrated musician, hauled the young boy to all the shows.

Crowell, who performs Thursday at Stone Mountain Arts Center in Brownfield, remembers seeing Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and Jerry Lee Lewis play while he was growing up in Houston.

By age 11, he had his own drum set and was banging away in his father’s honky-tonk band.

As he got older and began sorting out the ways of the world, Crowell found himself drawn to Texas tunesmiths like Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. They spoke a language that resonated. Their songs made sense to him, and Crowell decided he wanted to write songs too.

He moved to Nashville in 1972, and began a career that has lasted four decades. As a songwriter, producer and artist, he has recorded almost 20 albums, written several hits for others, and won numerous awards for his songwriting, including a Grammy.

Among his best-known tunes are “Ain’t Living Long Like This,” “Shame on the Moon,” “Ashes by Now” and “She’s Crazy for Leavin’.”

Now, he’s also a book writer.

In January, Alfred A. Knopf published his memoir, “Chinaberry Sidewalks.” It’s less a tale of his career and more a story about coming of age in poverty and being raised by parents who were, in his words, “bat-(expletive) crazy.”

He doesn’t trade his celebrity and the renown of his friends and family — he married Rosanne Cash and became Johnny Cash’s son-in-law — for tell-all stories.

Instead, he concentrates on his own tale, framed by the memory of his youth and the lessons of his life.

“I decided I needed to do this about 10 years ago,” he said in a phone interview. “It started to gel for me after my mother died. It became a passion to tell their story. Small people with a big story. That was most of what I have — small life, small people, big stories.”

The book is full of anecdotes that seem funny with the perspective of time, but are shockingly gritty. His home life was full of violence, and his parents were volatile and unstable.

When the gas bill went unpaid, his mom fried eggs in an aluminum pan over an iron. His father was a hard-drinking egomaniac; his mother, a religious fanatic.

As a youngster, Crowell once broke a bottle over his own head to get the attention of his parents, who were engaged in a pitched battle.

Growing up was edgy, at best, although Crowell writes that his parents were able to reconcile their lives as they aged and both redeemed themselves.

He long ago forgave them for the troubles they caused, and “Chinaberry Sidewalks” reads as a tribute to their love and survival. Indeed, Crowell says, “I was lucky to draw their number.”

From the outset, Crowell decided he had no interest in writing a book about his career. He is modestly famous. He’s written songs for a lot of famous musicians — Waylon Jennings, Bob Seger, Emmylou Harris among many others — and charted songs himself. But Crowell is a footnote in the larger world of popular music.

“I didn’t think I would have any passion about writing a book that framed some sort of love letter about my music and how I’ve done it to please my fans. Anybody who is a fan would understand that about me,” he said. “I’m not Keith Richards or David Bowie. I am a working artist and I have a respectable career. But I am not an icon or superstar.

“But by the same token, I have been around some great people and I know some stories. I would think that’s pretty obvious.”

It sure is, and his songs prove it.

“Chinaberry Sidewalks” fills in the details that give those songs their context. 

Staff Writer Bob Keyes can be reached at 791-6457 or at:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Follow him on Twitter at:

twitter.com/pphbkeyes

 

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