Dan Navarro returns to Sundilla on Friday, September 27. Showtime at the AUUF (450 E. Thach Avenue in Auburn) is 7:30, and advance tickets are available for $20 at Spicer’s Music, Ross House Coffee, Foodie’s, and online at www.sundillamusic.com. Admission at the door will be $25, but students can pay just $15 at the door. Free coffee, tea, water and food will be available, and attendees are welcome to bring their own favorite food or beverage.
You might have seen Dan Navarro play in the area before, at one of previous Sundilla performances, or at one of his can’t-miss sets at the Opelika Songwriters Festival. (In fact, Dan was the first person booked for the very first OSF in 2019.) If you haven’t seen Dan before, you have heard him in one way or another. You have probably heard his voicework on shows like “Family Guy” and “American Dad,” or in movies such as “Rio” and “Happy Feet.” (The list is amazingly long, and available on his website.) Longtime fans of the genre will know him as half of the ultra-successful duo Lowen & Navarro, which ceased recording and touring only after Eric Lowen’s untimely passing due to the complications of ALS. And if you listened to radio in the 80s, or have watched any TV shows, movies or commercials since then, you know his song “We Belong,” which was Pat Benatar’s biggest hit and earned a Grammy nomination and a lifetime of residuals.
Though he has written or co-written songs for the likes of Jackson Browne, Dionne Warwick, The Temptations, Keb’ Mo’ and others, there is no question that Dan’s greatest musical success came as half of Lowen & Navarro. A critic once said of Lowen & Navarro, “They are the logical extension of the creative and literate legacy that began with the Everly Brothers and emerged through Simon & Garfunkel. Immaculate harmonies, intricate but accessible melodies, intelligent heartfelt lyrics.” As Navarro has continued his career as a solo artist, the accolades have not diminished; a recent review said “Dan’s solo performances are marked by the same hallmarks as his work with Lowen & Navarro – songs of rich insight and experience, delivered straight-up, with honesty, grace and heart, in his moving and expressive baritone voice.”
Add in his work with SAG-AFTRA, musicFIRSTcoalition, BMI, NARAS, Folk Alliance International, and you wonder if there is anyone his work hasn’t helped, and if he ever sleeps. And then when you meet him, you wonder if you should hate him because on top of being so talented, so giving and so successful, he’s also the nicest guy in the world. Someone once wrote “Once you meet Dan Navarro, and see him perform, you’ll be torn as to whether he’s your favorite performer, or your best friend… or both.”