“Chinaberry Sidewalks,” by Rodney Crowell; Knopf; 259 pages; $24.95

Nashville songwriter and performer Rodney Crowell has written a memoir that is several cuts above the average show business memoir. It is, in fact, much better than memoirs of any type.

Crowell’s “Chinaberry Sidewalks” reaches Nashville, Tenn., only toward the end. The focus here is on the east Houston community of Jacinto City, described by Crowell’s mother as “your daddy’s new hellhole,” with side trips into backwater parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, where his father, J.W., and mother, Cauzette, were reared.

Crowell’s story is about his rejection of, then his acceptance of and love for his parents, who fought endlessly with each other and often mistreated Crowell. Cauzette regularly whipped Crowell with shoots from the Chinaberry tree that Crowell had planted, and J.W. ignored his son for long periods.

Cauzette was beaten down — suffering a stroke in utero, 13 miscarriages, epileptic seizures and the death of her first child, a boy, just 37 hours after birth. J.W. and Cauzette never were given a cause of death.

She met J.W. at a Roy Acuff concert in Buchanan, Tenn.

“I got walked home that night by the sweetest boy in the world, and I ain’t even thought about another man since,” she recalled.

J.W. was a frustrated country singer, a disciple of Hank Williams. He also yearned to be a civil engineer, but the idea of going to college was thwarted early by his sharecropping father.

Those ingredients, fueled by a lot of alcohol, produced many hard times for young Crowell, the only surviving child.

Crowell writes without self-pity about those times and with joy about the good times, of which there were many in a boyhood before computers, wall-to-wall practices and “quality time.” He tells his story with flair, and although his sentences sometimes run on a bit, they often have a kick.

Crowell admits to picking up a few of his father’s traits. Both shot from the hip and have disdain for anyone who plans things out. Crowell writes:

“Family vans cruising down the highway with all their vacation gear securely fastened on the top bring out the worst in me, my gut reaction being to ram bumper car-style into the driver’s side door and wreck both automobiles.”

And, of cours,e there was the country music connection.

J.W. took his son to a Hank Williams concert when Crowell was 2 years old. At 8, Crowell recalls accompanying his parents to Magnolia Gardens, east of Houston, to hear Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. That five-page scene will certainly have a place in country-music histories.

When Crowell was 11, he filled in as drummer for J.W.’s band, which prowled the honky-tonks of east Houston. Crowell witnessed up close his father’s need for attention. Crowell’s career as a drummer ended when Cauzette thumped a drunken woman who had taken a liking to J.W.

By the time Crowell got to high school, he’d had enough of his parents’ drinking and fighting; he moved 30 miles away to live with friends who had formed a band. Cauzette and J.W. soon followed, though they kept their distance from Crowell.

Crowell’s story then focuses on what became his biggest interest: girls. His early relationships ended badly. A psychiatrist told him later that he was always pursuing the unattainable “exceptional woman” to make up for his hatred of his mother’s low self-esteem.

No doubt his background, poor even by Jacinto City standards, played a role. Particularly touching was Crowell’s recollection of an incident in seventh grade. A girl that he liked said to him: “You’re kind of cute, but everybody thinks you’re on free lunches.”

Crowell survived a spiral into alcohol and barbiturates, and in the end reconciled with his parents. He had five good years with his father before his death, and many more with his mother in Nashville.

As noted, there is little about show business. Crowell’s 13-year marriage to Rosanne Cash, Johnny’s daughter, gets short shrift. Likewise, his work with Emmylou Harris and a raft of Nashville performers.

That material would have a hard time competing with what went on in Jacinto City.