For Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro, the road was home, the stage was the runway and the studio the garden. Songs of loss and change, hope and acceptance, fear and deliverance color their seven studio albums. Voices locked in synchro-step weaving in and out of the flow, telling stories of real lives in the balance. The connections between singer and song, between audience and stage melt into a rich brew that brings them deeper into the heart of the matter and that much closer to the fire in the hearts of their people. There is no road too long that their people don't travel far and wide to see and hear them.
And so it was for over twenty years. As a touring entity, L&N retired in June 2009 due to Eric Lowen's progressing ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's Disease), the neuromuscular disease he contracted in 2003.
The "final" release was 2008's "Learning To Fall". Seen through the lens of the realizations that come with living some of our dreams, releasing those that may never come to pass, and dealing with the acceptance of now as the only reality. The pattern of wanting and waiting, balanced with holding on and letting go, informs all the songs on "Learning To Fall" and makes them the truest, while sometimes most stark, expressions L&N have ever put on disk; revelatory realizations, without moroseness or rage, nor precious sentiment, but rather the simple statements of life lived at the crux.
The album features stellar musicians -- eternal sidekick Phil Parlapiano on pianos, organs, accordion, mandolins and guitar, Taras Prodaniuk (Richard Thompson), Hutch Hutchinson (Bonnie Raitt), and Rafe Bradford on bass; Don Heffington (Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris) on drums and percussion; Greg Leisz (Joni Mitchell, Dave Alvin), Doug Pettibone (Lucinda Williams), and Phil Hurley (Stonehoney, Gigolo Aunts) on guitars, David Ewart on violin, and Wendy Waldman, Julie Christensen, Jeanne Jolly, Shawn Davis, Nick Randolph and Phil Hurley on vocals.
Production was helmed by the legendary Jim Scott, a Grammy winner for his work with Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, Foo Fighters and The Dixie Chicks, as well as critically praised work with Wilco, Whiskeytown, Kathleen Edwards, Johnny Cash and many others.Three tracks are available above, and the album can be purchased in CD form or downloaded as 256k MP3s at the Lowen & Navarro website at http://www.lownav.com .
In early 2011, the much-delayed Live Archive Series will at last be launched, featuring concert and radio performances from every stage of their long career. Visit www.lownav.com for more details.
