Dan Navarro, What Was the First Album You Ever Bought?

“The ‘Hard Day’s Night’ soundtrack was my first album ever. I’d just come home from watching ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ at the theater and paid $2.19 for it because I didn’t want to spend $2.59 for the stereo version. I bought it in mono – I don’t think I even knew the difference between stereo and mono – because it was cheaper. I wore it completely out, absolutely wore it out. There was no looking back from that point on.

I think I still have that album, in fact, in storage somewhere. I refuse to sell them. Fascination with record albums is what got me into the music business in the first place. Much more so than the usual stock answer of ‘I did it to get girls.’ To be honest, girls didn’t give too much of a damn about me in the first place, and when I started playing music, it didn’t really change things. For me, it was all about the wonder and fascination of appearing on a record and getting inside those grooves and making people feel the way that I felt when I listened to records. That was it for me.”

Formerly one-half of the folk-pop duo Lowen & Navarro, Dan Navarro has been playing solo since 2009, when his singing-songwriting partner Eric Lowen retired from the road due to ALS (AKA Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Navarro makes a tour stop at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs at 8pm on Friday ($15 in advance; $17 at the door) and then heads to the Arkell Museum in Canajoharie at 7:30pm on Saturday ($25).