Live Wire

The young singer/songwriter duo Lowen & Navarro were best known for writing songs for Pat Benatar and the Bangles when they played a showcase gig at the Club Lingerie on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles on January 31, 1989. The performance would help them earn a contract with Chameleon Records, which issued their debut LP, Walking on a Wire, featuring seven of the songs heard here. Drawn from a soundboard recording, this disc finds them strumming acoustic guitars, joined only by the upright bass of Charlie Colin, and singing in their distinctive two-part harmony, with Dan Navarro's husky voice taking the melodies and Eric Lowen's soaring tenor the harmonies. The craftsmanship shows in their carefully constructed folk-pop love songs, and they reveal a telling influence when they cover Gene Clark's Byrds song "She Don't Care About Time." Lowen introduces "Walking on a Wire" by noting that "the news stinks," possibly a reference to the recent inauguration of George Bush as president. Perhaps the accusative song is about Bush, or maybe it is expressing disappointment with his rival, Michael Dukakis. In any case, it is an impassioned statement worthy of becoming the title song of the duo's coming debut. They sound a little nervous, and they play their songs a little faster than usual, but their youthful energy comes across, along with their polish. In coming years, Lowen & Navarro would suffer from the travails of the record industry, with two label affiliations blowing up without giving them the national push they needed. On this night in early 1989, however, all lies before them, and they sound promising, indeed.