NeuroTalk Support Groups - Musical Duo Sees Opportunities in Working with ALSA

Musical Duo Sees Opportunities in Working with ALSA
By Stephanie Dufner, ALSA Communications Coordinator

The performers and recording artists Lowen and Navarro, who held a web cast concert that benefited ALSA’s Greater Los Angeles Chapter in April 2004 after one of the group’s performers Eric Lowen was diagnosed with ALS, are doing more to help ALSA.

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During their recent visit to the National Office of ALSA, (right) Eric Lowen and Dan Navarro (aka Lowen and Navarro) discussed how Lowen’s ALS has affected their personal and professional lives.
During their touring schedule, which runs through July 2006, the musical duo encourages ALSA chapters to host information tables in venues where the band will hold concerts. “It feels very fitting to be able to talk about it (ALS) on stage and have somebody out in the lobby to answer the questions that are going to come up,“ Lowen said. “I really like that.”

The web cast raised nearly $8,000, including $5,200 from the sale of a $50 DVD set. Fans across the country and around the world viewed the live web cast where the two singer-songwriters reunited with members of their original band with whom they had not played in 12 years. To date, the event has raised almost $13,000.

“We wanted to do something directly for the L.A. Chapter because they were directly helping me,” explained Lowen, of the neo-folk band.

Through the Greater Los Angeles Chapter, Lowen has had access to a scooter and a scooter lift, a walker and a wheelchair. A tall musician with long flaxen hair, he has worked with case manager Pedro Loza at the chapter; Loza gave the singer-songwriter the phone number of the chapter’s executive director, Fred Fisher.

“The chapter has a tradition of engaging families in the fight against ALS,” Fisher said. “Each family finds their own way to participate, make an important difference. Dan (Navarro) and Eric use their musical talent to increase awareness and raise funds to support the chapter’s patient services programs as well as search for a cure.”

Lowen and Navarro have played in more than 90 cities internationally during the past 16 years; some locations have included Washington, D.C; Minneapolis; Chicago; Oslo; Stockholm; and Cannes, France.

Recently, Lowen and Preston Sturges penned a song titled, Learning to Fall, a tune that explores Lowen’s reactions to having the disease. The song appears on an album the band will release.

Lowen believes that his diagnosis has affected his working on stage in front of live audiences. “I feel more of immediacy when I’m performing. I feel more of an emotional connection.” He uses a walker when he’s on stage, and their road manager must carry him up steps to the stage.

Navarro agreed with Lowen’s assessment about his performance abilities. “Guitar playing has deepened with Eric. He’s coming from a more spiritual place in terms of what he’s doing.”

To read Lowen and Navarro’s concert schedule through 2006, visit http://www.lownav.com/shows/index.html.

To purchase the band’s DVD that benefits the Greater Los Angeles Chapter, e-mail one of the following addresses: tonya@alsla.org or gretchen@alsla.org. Note you would like to order Lowen & Navarro’s – Live at Kulak’s Woodshed.