Biography
For the greater part of his professional life, Los Angeles-based vocalist, composer, and guitarist Eric Lowen worked in close creative and stage partnership with Dan Navarro. Born David Eric Lowen on October 23, 1951, in Utica, New York, he was the child of a Baptist minister and a mother who had previously taught music. His early years unfolded across Utica, Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Greece, New York, following his father’s successive pastoral assignments. Shortly before the family relocated to Greece, New York, during his ninth-grade year, his parents presented him with a guitar as a Christmas gift, prompting him to master the instrument rapidly. High-school ensembles occupied his time, and at Brockport State College he formed a short-lived singing duo with fellow hopeful Christine Lavin that endured for one year. After earning an English-literature degree, he took a series of entry-level positions until Lavin arranged an opportunity for him to serve as backup musician for Bert Sommer. That role brought him to Los Angeles, where he earned his initial recording credit on Sommer’s self-titled 1977 Capitol Records LP. Following his departure from Sommer, Lowen accepted employment as a singing waiter at a West Hollywood restaurant, where he encountered Navarro, who had been temporarily replaced by Lowen during a brief tour with Severin Browne. The two developed a friendship, performed together in the local group Bon Mot, and began co-authoring material. Recognition arrived when Pat Benatar included their composition “We Belong” (credited on the release to David Lowen) on the November 24, 1984, album Tropico; the single reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100 dated January 5, 1985. Lowen and Navarro supplied songs to the soundtracks of Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987; “It’s Time to Move”) and Casual Sex? (1988; “[She’s A] Wild Card”), and they contributed to the Bangles’ October 1988 album Everything by co-writing “Something to Believe In” with David White and Michael Steele plus “I’ll Set You Free” with White and Susanna Hoffs. The platinum-certified release entered the Top 20. An additional Hoffs-Lowen-Navarro song, “Everything I Wanted,” later appeared on the Bangles’ May 1990 platinum-selling Greatest Hits collection. Independently of Navarro, Lowen joined Peter Peterkin in writing “Next Time,” featured on the Four Tops’ September 1988 album Indestructible.
After the breakthrough of “We Belong,” Lowen assembled the band 20 Times and continued songwriting with Navarro, yet by the late 1980s the pair elected to operate as a duo. They launched Lowen & Navarro with a January 1988 residency at the Breakaway in Venice, California. Their two-part vocal harmonies and acoustic-guitar accompaniment placed them within the era’s “nu-folk” movement. A January 31, 1989, showcase at Club Lingerie in Los Angeles was later issued in 1996 as the album Live Wire. The startup Chameleon Records signed them for the May 12, 1990, debut Walking on a Wire; “What I Make Myself Believe” appeared in the 1991 film Blue Desert, while the closing track “Hammerhead Shark,” co-written with Preston Sturges, received a cover by David Lee Roth on his January 1991 gold-selling album A Little Ain’t Enough. Chameleon’s 1991 restructuring led to the dropping of nearly all its roster, including Lowen & Navarro. The duo persisted on the road and scored another success by co-writing “You Don’t Have to Go Home Tonight” with the Triplets (Diana, Sylvia, and Vicky Villegas); the Mercury Records single peaked inside the Top 20 in May 1991. Mercury’s Parachute imprint then offered the pair a deal, releasing Broken Moon on October 20, 1993, and Pendulum on August 30, 1995. “Just to See You” from the former album was used in the 1994 film Color of Night. Parachute subsequently ceased operations.
Establishing their own Red Hen Records, Lowen & Navarro issued Live Wire before aligning with Atlanta-based Intersound, which re-released that title and followed on August 25, 1998, with the fourth studio album Scratch at the Door. Label instability continued, yet touring in folk clubs and festivals steadily expanded their audience. On August 21, 2001, Artemis Records released Jacob Young’s self-titled album, to which Lowen and Navarro contributed substantial songwriting, instrumental work, and vocals. Red Hen was revived with the February 21, 2002, collection Live Radio, drawn from 1990s appearances on the Los Angeles program FolkScene. Their holiday album At Long Last… Christmas arrived November 1, 2002. A February 8, 2003, opening slot for Don Conoscenti at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia, yielded the Mad Raine release 3 for the Road: Live! at Eddie's Attic later that year.
While Lowen & Navarro were financing their next studio album through fan contributions, Lowen received an Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease) diagnosis on March 17, 2004. Despite the prognosis, the duo completed and released All the Time in the World on September 21, 2004. With time limited, they next recorded the covers collection Hogging the Covers (October 16, 2006), produced the July 3, 2007, live DVD Carry on Together via AIX Entertainment, and issued the December 2, 2008, original-material album Learning to Fall, co-billed with longtime sideman Phil Parlapiano.
Progression of the illness brought Lowen & Navarro’s final concert on June 6, 2009, in Alexandria, Virginia. On January 5, 2010, AIX issued the charity album Keep the Light Alive: Celebrating the Music of Lowen & Navarro, benefiting ALS organizations and featuring the duo’s songs performed by Jackson Browne, John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, Keb’ Mo’, the Bangles, and additional artists. Their twelfth annual cruise along the Mexican coast took place January 3–10, 2010. Eric Lowen succumbed to ALS complications on March 23, 2012, in Los Angeles at the age of sixty.
After the breakthrough of “We Belong,” Lowen assembled the band 20 Times and continued songwriting with Navarro, yet by the late 1980s the pair elected to operate as a duo. They launched Lowen & Navarro with a January 1988 residency at the Breakaway in Venice, California. Their two-part vocal harmonies and acoustic-guitar accompaniment placed them within the era’s “nu-folk” movement. A January 31, 1989, showcase at Club Lingerie in Los Angeles was later issued in 1996 as the album Live Wire. The startup Chameleon Records signed them for the May 12, 1990, debut Walking on a Wire; “What I Make Myself Believe” appeared in the 1991 film Blue Desert, while the closing track “Hammerhead Shark,” co-written with Preston Sturges, received a cover by David Lee Roth on his January 1991 gold-selling album A Little Ain’t Enough. Chameleon’s 1991 restructuring led to the dropping of nearly all its roster, including Lowen & Navarro. The duo persisted on the road and scored another success by co-writing “You Don’t Have to Go Home Tonight” with the Triplets (Diana, Sylvia, and Vicky Villegas); the Mercury Records single peaked inside the Top 20 in May 1991. Mercury’s Parachute imprint then offered the pair a deal, releasing Broken Moon on October 20, 1993, and Pendulum on August 30, 1995. “Just to See You” from the former album was used in the 1994 film Color of Night. Parachute subsequently ceased operations.
Establishing their own Red Hen Records, Lowen & Navarro issued Live Wire before aligning with Atlanta-based Intersound, which re-released that title and followed on August 25, 1998, with the fourth studio album Scratch at the Door. Label instability continued, yet touring in folk clubs and festivals steadily expanded their audience. On August 21, 2001, Artemis Records released Jacob Young’s self-titled album, to which Lowen and Navarro contributed substantial songwriting, instrumental work, and vocals. Red Hen was revived with the February 21, 2002, collection Live Radio, drawn from 1990s appearances on the Los Angeles program FolkScene. Their holiday album At Long Last… Christmas arrived November 1, 2002. A February 8, 2003, opening slot for Don Conoscenti at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia, yielded the Mad Raine release 3 for the Road: Live! at Eddie's Attic later that year.
While Lowen & Navarro were financing their next studio album through fan contributions, Lowen received an Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease) diagnosis on March 17, 2004. Despite the prognosis, the duo completed and released All the Time in the World on September 21, 2004. With time limited, they next recorded the covers collection Hogging the Covers (October 16, 2006), produced the July 3, 2007, live DVD Carry on Together via AIX Entertainment, and issued the December 2, 2008, original-material album Learning to Fall, co-billed with longtime sideman Phil Parlapiano.
Progression of the illness brought Lowen & Navarro’s final concert on June 6, 2009, in Alexandria, Virginia. On January 5, 2010, AIX issued the charity album Keep the Light Alive: Celebrating the Music of Lowen & Navarro, benefiting ALS organizations and featuring the duo’s songs performed by Jackson Browne, John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, Keb’ Mo’, the Bangles, and additional artists. Their twelfth annual cruise along the Mexican coast took place January 3–10, 2010. Eric Lowen succumbed to ALS complications on March 23, 2012, in Los Angeles at the age of sixty.