Daniel Donato has his eyes on Colorado.
The young Nashville, Tennessee-based guitar player is climbing the ranks of hot musicians of not only the jam, but the indie country realm. With serious guitar chops, his sound is part Danny Gatton, and part Gram Parsons, leading a band that can bang out country groovers that clock in under four minutes, or stretching out a song with a ripping guitar solo that will have the jam-band fans twirling on a festival field or sweaty dance-floor of a rock ’n’ roll venue. If there was any musician and band that you’d be willing to spend a few hours in the car to get to a festival, Donato is it.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country will perform this weekend at the Rhythms on the Rio Festival in Del Norte. That festival kicks off Friday, and Donato will close out the Saturday lineup. Also performing are the California Honeydrops, Keller Williams, The Lil’ Smokes, The Fretliners and more.
If you go
WHAT: Rhythms on the Rio Festival.
WHEN: Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
WHERE: Del Norte.
TICKETS: Single day $50/$60/$70, weekend pass with camping $190.
MORE INFORMATION: www.rhythmsontherio.com.
The Centennial State is a place musicians of any genre look to perform, including Donato.
“When we play Colorado, we really feel like we’re just connected with the soil. We just feel like we’re in a very deep frequency of the state, and it just feels great to play here” he said. “I want to play in Colorado for the rest of my career, and everyone in the band feels that way.”
Donato has dug country music since he was a kid. While it may be typical for a young teenager to listen to anything from Black Sabbath to Nirvana, he was getting into sounds out of Nashville of any era – they were his steppingstones.
“I passed through the classic, archetypal doorways and influence from when I was 12 to right about when I was 14,” he said. “I had discovered Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel, and the Chet Atkins door led me down to what seems to be the eternal hallways of country music.”
Those “eternal hallways” were part of a fixation on country music.
“I was just obsessed. I remember I used to talk a lot in class, I was the funny kid, and I was able to make everyone laugh,” Donato said. “I got kicked out of history class once when I was 14. I was sitting in the hallway listening to music and I was listening to Bob Wills, ‘Stay A Little Longer,’ the original recording, and my teacher was like ‘what are you listening to? You’re such a freak.’ I was just so obsessed with this music from the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. Just like they say in Roberts Western World, we play ‘PG’ country music. Pre-Garth Brooks.”
While Donato’s Cosmic Country may not be 100% classic or outlaw country, it’s more traditional country than anything you’ll hear on modern-country radio. And within those country cuts, you’ll hear Atkins and Emmanuel influenced, ripping guitar; there’s a lot of rock in this country, too. Donato is more concerned about uniting band and audience over genre.
“I care very little about how genres of music get classified,” he said. “When people come to a cosmic country show it’s just pure love. There’s just a collective consciousness in the room, it’s all just love and it is great.”
He’s already laying the groundwork to make Colorado a regular stop on tours. He’s played the Belly-Up in Aspen and Red Rocks, and if this momentum continues, he’ll likely be hitting all the classic Colorado genres for the foreseeable future.
“I can see us playing here forever,” Donato said.
The Rhythms on the Rio Festival will feature two sets from Donato and band, one of which will include Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country playing all of Bob Dylan’s 1969 release, “Nashville Skyline.”
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at liggett_b@fortlewis.edu.
