Dan Navarro, veteran musician, singer for movies and more, to play Petaluma benefit

Benefit concerts are a great way to raise funds for worthy causes, though sometimes it can be hard to discern where your money is going. That’s not the case with events that support a Bay Area medical relief organization called Global Healing.

Dr. Eric Scher of Petaluma has been volunteering for Global Healing for years. In early 2019, he brought an automated external defibrillator (AED), used for heart-attack victims, to a clinic on the Honduran island of Roatan.

“The day after we brought that there and taught them how to use it, they used it for the first time with a gentleman who was 48 years old,” said Scher, medical director of Global Healing’s Roatan Honduras Pediatric Program.

The man, named Jose, had come into a clinic with chest pain “and while he was talking, he went into cardiac arrest.”

Medics attached the AED’s pads to Jose’s chest “and on the second shock, he came back and went into what we call a normal sinus rhythm,” Scher said.

Global Healing also trains pediatric interns and first responders in providing emergency medical care in Roatan and beyond. The group also helps build basic infrastructure such as water systems for rural hospitals in Haiti, Vietnam and other developing countries.

The next benefit concert for Global Healing features Dan Navarro, the Southern California singer-songwriter formerly of the duo Lowen and Navarro, at Petaluma’s Big Easy, on Sunday, Nov. 12.

One of Lowen and Navarro’s best-known songs is the anthemic “We Belong,” which became a hit for Pat Benatar and has been featured in shows such as “This Is Us.”

Navarro has been a musician and singer for dozens of films, such as “Puss in Boots,” “Deadpool 2” and “The Addams Family,” according to IMDB. (He did not discuss his credits due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA actors strike).

A bilingual singer and voice actor, he worked as a singer on Disney’s “Coco” and added his rich baritone to the global hit written by Lin-Manuel Miranda for “Encanto,” but due to the strike he can’t talk about “Bruno.”

Back in the 1990s, Lowen and Navarro were sometimes called the Indigo Boys.

“That was a moniker that I accepted proudly because I love the Indigo Girls,” he said in a recent phone interview. The pair was also compared to Simon and Garfunkel.

“Like any musicians, we were subject to the influences of the artists that came before us. Then we decided to throw our own little spin on it. And it worked,” Navarro said.

“What was similar was that there was sensitivity, but there was energy. The two-part vocals were killer to the point where, frankly, when Eric (Lowen) retired before he passed away, I wasn't looking for another partner,” he said.

In 2004, Lowen was diagnosed with ALS, the degenerative muscular disorder known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He died at age 60 in 2009.

“After 20-plus years with the best,” Navarro said, finding a new partner “just didn’t seem like the right thing to do.”

Navarro decided in college that he wanted to be a songwriter and singer, but he faced a “seven-year stall” until Pat Benatar covered “We Belong” in 1984.

That “changed everything,” he said. Navarro worked as a songwriter in Los Angeles “writing with everybody and for everybody,” then teamed up with Lowen.

“We put the duo together thinking we really want to be artists. Let’s just do it for love in a corner bar someplace,” he said.

“That caught on and became Lowen and Navarro, when all we were really trying to do was just keep ourselves happy.”

Because of the recognition and acclaim for the duo, Navarro has been able to continue as a solo artist.

His most recent album, “Horizon Line,” came out last year and is produced by Grammy-winning producer Jim Scott.

With songs such as “She Dreams in Music,” the album evokes Navarro’s signature heartfelt emotion, played with musicians who have backed David Crosby, Lucinda Williams, John Prine and Richard Thompson.

During the pandemic, Navarro connected with his community of fans through virtual concerts and storytelling six days a week from March to August 2020, then he downshifted to three days a week. By April 2021, he’d done 250 virtual shows.

“It was about keeping engaged when everybody was kind of freaking out that they were so isolated,” he said.

Two years ago, he bought a camper van and got back on the road. Mask mandates and social distancing were still in place, but people came to his shows.

At age 71, Navarro still loves what he does.

“I still bring that energy to it,” he said. “I never, ever phone it in — that’s not worth it. I just want to be busy my whole life. It’s over when you let it be over.”