Local keyboardist enjoys being a Crowe 

February 19, 1999

posted by Seppi


BY BRIAN MCCOLLUM
Free Press Pop Music Writer 

Eddie Harsch thought it would last four months.


A seasoned pianist-organist who'd made his name on the blues circuit with such 
acts as Albert Collins and James Cotton, the Detroit musician figured his 1991 
residency with the Black Crowes was just that.


Things were breaking big for the Crowes that January: "Shake Your Money Maker" 
had just been certified for one million sales when Harsch flew to Atlanta to 
audition between dates on the Crowes' first national tour. He'd been recommended 
by a mutual friend: veteran keyboardist Chuck Levelle, who'd performed on the 
album but didn't want to tour.


Harsch got the job after a 10-minute jam on "Hard to Handle" and "Jealous 
Again," the group's two recent radio smashes. "OK, he knows the hits," shouted 
drummer Steve Gorman, hopping off the drum riser. "Let's get out of here."


In time, though, it became clear that Harsch wasn't going to be just a utility 
player on the Crowes' backing crew.


"We had the same musical background, listened to a lot of the same stuff," 
Harsch recalls. "When we sat down and actually started talking, it was kind of 
remarkable how parallel it was. It's still that way."


Singer Chris Robinson says Harsch's offbeat humor and chops made the perfect 
match for the Crowes.


"He's our resident alien," Robinson says with a laugh. "But he's a genius 
player, man."


Much as you'd expect with a band that values artistic freedom, Harsch says he 
gets plenty of room to operate within the creative world of the songwriting 
Robinson brothers.


"Since Rich writes the body of the instrumental parts of the songs, he'll have a 
suggestion, but he'll also know just to feed me a couple of adjectives, and I'll 
come up with something based on that," Harsch says. "They have enough faith in 
me to come up with something."


Harsch, 39, was born in Toronto and lured here in the early '80s by Detroit's 
"bohemian subculture." These days, he says, he lives out of his suitcase, 
spending only brief blocks of time at his rented house in the Cass Corridor.


When he is in town, he's a common sight for local night owls, who catch him 
jamming onstage with the Howling Diablos, Johnnie Bassett and the Reefermen. 
Harsch has also contributed to albums by George Clinton, Kid Rock and Robert 
Bradley's Blackwater Surprise.


"His strengths are in blues-gospel," says Diablos vocalist Martin (Tino) Gross. 
"Eddie is a musician -- he's not a rock star. He keeps it real."


Harsch says he never envisioned he'd be gigging with the Crowes in 1999. But 
when that first tour wrapped up in April '91, he was offered a deal to 
permanently join the band. And he hasn't looked back.


"By that time," he says, "I was having way too much fun to turn around and 
leave."