Daniel Donato’s career is a complementary dichotomy of staying open to inspiration and relentlessly working toward greatness.
Onstage, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country shows all of the hallmarks of a highly professional, highly skilled band rapidly approaching the height of its power and potential. The group nails classic country covers and originals, and locks into 20-minute jams that explore stellar spaces previously traveled by the Grateful Dead.
Donato’s band switches between country and cosmic modes so effortlessly, often multiple times in the same song, suggesting that the members are not only seasoned pros, they’re also connected on a deep level.
“There’s a bond up there that is mind-based, and then there’s a spiritual bond through the experience that we’ve all shared with each other,” Donato says. “There’s a trust there, so it feels really beautiful.”
Donato says that the band’s spiritual connection is the key to its success. Its mantra of putting music into the world that is “true, beautiful and good” serves as the spiritual alignment that enables them to lock in physically and musically on stage. When that is achieved at each show, the band essentially has no limits.
“We aim for greatness every night with every song, and we try not to compare ourselves to anybody else,” Donato says. “We try to aim for something really high because we really want to do something that is very special.”
By now, Donato’s personal origin story is practically legend: Nashville kid. Started busking on Broadway at 14. Joined the Don Kelley Band at 16, playing every night at Robert’s Western World. Discovered the Dead at 18. Released his first album in 2020, followed by relentless touring. Built a dedicated fan base that continues to grow.
Five years into his career as an artist and bandleader, Donato has already accomplished a number of his goals. This year, he will play The Ryman Auditorium in his hometown, followed by a special show at Robert’s. In 2024, he started Camp Cosmic, his own two-day festival at The Caverns in Tennessee, which returned for a second edition April 11-12 of this year.
His fast rise into the ranks of top recording and touring acts has left Donato feeling responsible for tailoring his live music to a spectrum of fans — the folks who will attend 20 nights of a 30-night tour, and those seeing him for the first time.
“There are different versions of me that people are coming to see,” Donato says. “The people that are so familiar with what we do and they want to see more, they’re just in the caboose with us as we’re exploring in real time. Then there’s other concentric circles that keep getting farther away from that … we can deliver to them territory that we’ve already exploited and discovered and are already really comfortable with. I just have to access what feels and appears to me to be most true within myself at all moments, and hopefully it’s hitting those concentric circles.”
With many goals checked off and potentially a decades-long career ahead, the big question is how Donato moves forward. He wishes he were a prolific songwriter, but admits that he has to wait for ideas to come. Donato says that songwriting inspiration is fickle — it could come immediately after a show in a hotel, or on a rare day off at home when he has planned quiet time to rest and think. Still, Donato plans to release two collections of music this year — about 25 songs.
When asked whether words or music comes first when he writes, he offers perhaps the greatest hippie songwriter quote of all time: “Depends, but they both have the unifying force of feeling behind them. Some days I put my right Birkenstock on first, and then I put on my left Birkenstock first another day. At the end of the day, they’re both on. So I’m happy with both.”
Donato loves collaborating with other artists and would love to work with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson while he still can. He also mentions Ben Haggard, Merle’s son, as a contemporary with whom he’d love to play.
For now, he’s feeling extreme gratitude for the journey he’s on and the success he’s earned so far. He says a couple of things are important in the narrative of his career: he never skips steps, working very hard to optimize the opportunities given to him; and he tries to stay out of his own way, remaining open to inspiration for songwriting and live performance whenever it comes.
“I feel really, really grateful and blessed to have followed that feeling and that vision and that set of values with discipline and organization and imagination,” Donato says. “I didn’t ask to be inspired to do this, and that’s part of why I think I’m so grateful to do it. I feel like I’m obligated to recognize that and then share it.”
Get your tickets now to see Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country return to Rooster Walk!
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