His Montrose bungalow is as much a research center for gypsy music as it is a home. Harbar revs up his accordion, and the drummer and percussionist fall into the groove. It's all in a night's work for Harbar and his band, the Gypsies. Whatever Eastern European flavor you like, odds are good that Harbar knows how to cook it up. To visit Harbar's east Montrose bungalow is to stumble upon one of the finest ethnic music collections in the world.
Several walls are packed floor to ceiling with LPs, CDs, cassettes, videos and books on music.
The fireplace is concealed by a half-dozen or so Slavic string band instruments, including his trusty bass balalaika, which is another of the instruments Harbar has mastered. Yet you can travel far without lifting a finger if your mind is free, and Greg Harbar has nothing if not a free mind. One tongue the immigrants all understood was music, and Harbar and two of his brothers formed a polka combo while in their teens. But even in the very buckle of the New Jersey Borscht Belt, the Harbar brothers fell under the spell of Elvis Presley's Memphian ministrations. After working up a few polka versions of the King's music, the Harbars tried them out on the old folks at home.