Chinaberry Sidewalks

Grammy Award winner Rodney Crowell delivers a memoir that has the same magic that put him in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. For starters, his poignant background includes a prayerful and afflicted mother, a hard-drinking and abusive father, and impoverished beginnings that make for provocative memories of his ramshackle Texas home. His rich imagery is sometimes disturbing but escapes being maudlin by his lack of self-pity and his tendency to eclipse the hard times with those more pleasurable. Crowell finds compassion for all the characters he animates in his strong reading. He emphasizes the humorous moments, with his own laughter sometimes causing him to pause in his powerful narrative. Storytelling contrasts and ironies create a read-aloud musicality that echoes Crowell's gifts as a songwriter. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine