Lowen & Navarro

Formed in 1987 as a Los Angeles-based writing and performing partnership, the duo Lowen & Navarro brought together singer/songwriter/guitarists Eric Lowen, born October 23, 1951, and Dan Navarro, born September 14, 1952, though their first encounter had taken place a decade earlier. Both worked as singing waiters at a West Hollywood restaurant in 1978 before joining the local group Bon Mot, where they started composing material collaboratively. Recognition arrived when Pat Benatar included their composition “We Belong,” credited on the release to David Lowen, on the album Tropico issued November 24, 1984; the single climbed to number five on the Billboard Hot 100 by January 5, 1985.

Lowen & Navarro supplied songs for Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol in 1987 with “It’s Time to Move” and for Casual Sex? the following year with “[She’s A] Wild Card.” They joined the writing team for the Bangles’ third album Everything, released October 1988, co-authoring “Something to Believe In” alongside David White and Michael Steele plus “I’ll Set You Free” with White and Susanna Hoffs; that platinum-selling record reached the Top 20. Another Hoffs and Lowen & Navarro collaboration, “Everything I Wanted,” later appeared on the Bangles’ platinum Greatest Hits collection in May 1990.

Following the success of “We Belong,” Lowen assembled the band 20 Times and continued songwriting with Navarro, yet by the late 1980s the pair chose to perform as a duo. Four appearances at a Sunset Strip “No-Amp Night” in 1987 led to a regular residency at the Breakaway in Venice, California, beginning January 1988. Performing two-part harmonies over acoustic guitars, they aligned with the “nu-folk” movement and delivered a showcase at Club Lingerie on January 31, 1989, later issued in 1996 as the album Live Wire. Their debut studio album Walking on a Wire arrived May 12, 1990, on the startup Chameleon Records label; “What I Make Myself Believe” appeared in the 1991 film Blue Desert, while the closing track “Hammerhead Shark,” co-written with Preston Sturges, was recorded by David Lee Roth for his gold album A Little Ain’t Enough in January 1991. Chameleon’s 1991 restructuring eliminated most of its roster, including Lowen & Navarro.

They maintained a performing schedule and scored another hit when they co-wrote “You Don’t Have to Go Home Tonight” with the Triplets—Diana, Sylvia, and Vicky Villegas—whose Mercury Records version reached the Top 20 in May 1991. That connection secured a deal on Mercury’s Parachute imprint, created specifically for adult-pop acts; Parachute issued Broken Moon on October 20, 1993, and Pendulum on August 30, 1995, with “Just to See You” from the former featured in the 1994 film Color of Night. Parachute soon ceased operations as well.

The duo launched their own Red Hen Records to release Live Wire, then signed with Atlanta-based Intersound, which reissued the live set and followed on August 25, 1998, with the studio album Scratch at the Door. Another label departure ensued, yet touring in folk clubs and festivals steadily expanded their audience. On August 21, 2001, Artemis Records put out Jacob Young’s self-titled album, to which Lowen & Navarro contributed several co-written songs plus performances. Red Hen was revived February 21, 2002, with the release of Live Radio, a set drawn from their 1990s appearances on the L.A. program FolkScene. Their holiday collection At Long Last… Christmas followed November 1, 2002. A February 8, 2003, opening slot for Don Conoscenti at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia, yielded the live album 3 for the Road: Live! at Eddie's Attic, issued later that year by Mad Raine.

While financing their next studio project through fan contributions, Lowen received an ALS diagnosis—also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease—on March 17, 2004. The pair nevertheless completed and released All the Time in the World on September 21, 2004. Subsequent projects included the covers album Hogging the Covers on October 16, 2006, the live DVD Carry on Together issued July 3, 2007, by AIX Entertainment, and the December 2, 2008, studio release Learning to Fall, co-billed with longtime sideman Phil Parlapiano.

Lowen & Navarro’s final concert took place June 6, 2009, in Alexandria, Virginia. AIX Entertainment issued the charity album Keep the Light Alive: Celebrating the Music of Lowen & Navarro on January 5, 2010, featuring their songs performed by Jackson Browne, John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, Keb’ Mo’, the Bangles, and additional artists, with proceeds directed to ALS organizations. Their twelfth annual cruise along the Mexican coast ran January 3–10, 2010. Eric Lowen died March 23, 2012, in Los Angeles at age sixty from complications of ALS.