Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country is a joyful vibe that marries sticky-floored honky tonk with 60s psychedelic grooves. It brings together something old, something new, something borrowed, and something decidedly bluegrass.
Having spent his early teenage years busking for tips in downtown Nashville, Donato was eventually asked to sit in for The Don Kelly Band. By 17, he was playing four nights a week at Robert's Western World — a club about a block away from the Ryman Auditorium.
Now touring as Cosmic Country, Donato, with bassist Will "Mustang" McGee, keyboardist Nathan "Sugar Leg" Aronowitz and drummer Will "Bronco" Clark are promoting their latest album, Reflector.
All the while, they've turned a few heads on the jam band scene and have recently collaborated live with Billy Strings, Widespread Panic — as well as Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead.
Daniel Donato's Cosmic Country stopped by NHPR's Studio D to chat with Rick Ganley about what it's been like to play live music with some of their heroes.
Daniel Donato: At first — I don't think we've ever talked about this — but I personally felt a little bit of imposter syndrome when we saw our internal dreams of what we wanted to do with music start to appear in our Google calendar. You know, that's a weird thing, because it's like, 'uh, am I ready?' You know, 'am I — are we ready for this?' And there was never a doubt in my head that we were ready. But there's that. It's a weird, slippery sensation when that starts to happen.
But it's fascinating to see what people focus on when they're not so young anymore, and they're [performing] at a higher level than when they were doing it when they were young...And it's usually way more fundamental than what anxious young guys will focus on.Daniel Donato
Have you asked some of these artists that you, you know, obviously grew up idolizing? Now you get to play with them. Have you asked them about that? Did they feel that [imposter syndrome] in the beginning?
Donato: I've never asked them about that, to be honest.
I have to imagine that [feeling is] pretty universal.
Donato: I try to observe the heroes when we're with them. I try not to get too inquisitive because I'm really seeking, you know, I can ask really heavy questions that might, I've noticed, have thrown a lot of people off. Bob was really receptive to my heavy questions.
Bob Weir.
Donato: Yeah, and so was Bill [Kreutzmann].
Donato: But it's fascinating to see what people focus on when they're not so young anymore, and they're [performing] at a higher level than when they were doing it when they were young. Um, what are they focused on? What are their values? And it's usually way more fundamental than what anxious young guys will focus on. You know, they're way more about having — like, Bill was way more about having fun and not sweating the small details.
Mustang [Will McGee], what are you asking the old guard?
McGee: I just ask them how their ears feel. 'How are your ears at this point?' I asked Bill Kreutzmann that. He said, 'God has blessed me.'
Donato: That's a good answer!
McGee: To not have any ringing? I don't see how that's even possible.
Sugar Leg [Nathan Aronowitz]: This is Sugar. I think we genuinely found a musical connection, you know, and we get to have these conversations every night. Musically, it evolves. It gives us an everlasting inspiration, you know, to play with each other.
And no two shows are alike, right?
Yeah, it's really cool. I think we all feel that, you know, and that that keeps us going.
Your first record was was covers, right? I mean, it was really — was it was mostly covers?
Donato: Yeah. Young Man's Country there were some covers on there — and there was some originals.
So this new album, Reflector, this is all original.
Donato: Yeah, it's all original — and it truly is an original endeavor. And what I mean by that is a lot of records that get made out of Nashville — a lot of bands kind of operate like machines, and those are [session players] who are amazing musicians, and they stay in town mostly, and they cut records all day, all week long, and sometimes on the weekend. And with Cosmic Country, it's the same personalities that you see on stage playing in the studio. But that's something that is, I think, far more enduring for this kind of music.
You improvise on stage a lot. I mean, every show is different— and so how do you get that on the record? How do you harness that and make that into a coherent sonic experience?
Donato: I'd like to hear all of our answers for that, and I'll start with one here. Um, I think it comes down to finding the right producer. And Vance Powell, our producer, was the de facto guy for that. He's, uh, he's as high frequency as he gets when it comes to working in a studio. Um, what do you guys think?
McGee: I mean, improvisation is such a big part of our style and sound. Um, I mean, our live show is kind of famous for playing all this unreleased material all the time, and fans get to know the music by coming to the show, not the other way around. So there's, like, a lot of trust that you put into what you spend all that time developing. It's good to have like a laboratory to test that kind of stuff out before you commit it to tape.
Donato: And that takes a lot of time, you know, that's why we play so many of our songs live many times before we bring them to the studio. We all have to be aligned and it has to turn us on, so to speak.
