From Staff Reports
AMERICUS — Tabby Crabb has another book out, with more stories about his hometown of Americus and the people who helped to shape his life. The latest book, “More From My Hometown Americus Georgia” is eclectic in nature and features, among other subjects of interest, several expanded versions of stories and pictures he wrote for the Americus Times-Recorder in 2008, on Vi Oliver, Stanley Harden, Bailey Harris and Capt. Bud Mills, as well as several of the favorite cooks like Mary Marshall and B.G. Woody.
Crabb, a local musician turned writer, published his first book in the Hometown Americus Georgia series, “Hometown Americus Georgia, Life and Times — My Side of the Story” in February 2009.
The new book also picks up on more stories from the music road featuring Joe Johnson, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Lee, Mickey Gilley, Sam Neely, Kenny Stabler and Joe West, plus stories from Gilley's Club in Pasadena, Texas, and Crabb's link to the mystereous world of magical entertainment from Americus to Reno and Las Vegas, Nev.
"When I write, I have to bare my soul and try to be completely honest about what I'm writing," Crabb reveals from his kudzu covered cottage in Leslie. "If I don't believe it, it doesn't flow out. Once I've gotten everything out of the way — paying bills, filling all promises, returning all calls, once I have it all ironed out — I can write 14 hours a day taking a little time out for rest. It looks easy when you can write a book in two or three weeks, but the mental prep actually takes months, storing up the stories and thoughts and feelings.
"I guess I can type pretty fast. I smoked for most of my life before I was finally forced to quit, and I developed my keyboard style with a cigarette between my index and second fingers of my right hand. My left hand goes with all five fingers flying and my right, I hit it with my thumb and second finger, kind of like playing the ‘Bobolink Boogie’ and the piano," Crabb said, making a reference to his stint as the honky tonk piano player at the world famous Gilley's Club in Pasadena.
Crabb says he was once hired to cover for Jerry Lee Lewis at a recording session. "I got a call late one night in Nashville. It was Greg Kane, Hank Cochran's producer. They had Lewis at Hank's studio doing one of those greatest hits albums. He was acting up and insisting that he play everything on a little red toy piano and holding everything up. He had that reputation you know, but I knew Jerry Lee from when he came down to Gilley's during 'Urban Cowboy.' When I was a teenage kid in Americus finding out I had a little keyboard talent, I never dreamed that I could cover piano for Jerry Lee Lewis in the studio or work for his cousin Mickey in the same capacity. Life is strange and wonderful sometimes!"
Now available, “More From My Hometown Americus Georgia” is published by CreateSpace, a subsidiary of Amazon.com. and is available there online as well as the Hometown Americus website http://HometownAmericus.com for $14.95. The book is a 180-page, 6 x 9, perfectbound paperback with another cover designed by Ralph Nelson and dedicated to Martha A. Cook, Tabby Crabb’s 10th grade English teacher.
