Cosmic Country Rising: An Interview With Daniel Donato
Daniel Donato is a rising guitar star. I caught up with him on the release of his new album Horizons to discuss the new work, his skyrocketing career and more.
I’ve been following Daniel Donato’s career since he started going national several years ago. We’ve played some shows together - Cosmic Country opened for Friends Of The Brothers in Rochester and he sat in just a few years ago! Daniel and I share a manager/agent in C.J. Strock of Red Light. That’s all just to lay my cards on the table.
Daniel is a great talent and a great young man and the people who keep having him sit in speaks volumes about this: Billy Strings, Bill Kreutzmann, String Cheese Incident, Widesptead Panic. He’s also thoughtful and strategic. Check out our conversation and let me know what you think!
LOVE this interview, and consider Daniel Donato and his (GREAT) band Cosmic Country to be among the biggest news in the heavy touring/live improv music scene. Stumbled on him when he guested at a Bobby Weir Wolf Bros show in Memphis in like '22 -- but really caught my eye during a '23 webcast when first guesting with Widespread Panic in SC... he and Jimmy Herring delighted in topping each other with incendiary leads to close a show. To me, that's when Daniel really walked off the stage as a "hottest new thing" talent where others I'm sure also thought, "Wow, who IS this guy?" Besides being an amazing player, composer and bandleader with the soul and wisdom of a 60 year old pro, his "say only positive things" interview style and intelligence here only adds to his positive 'obvious rising star' vibe. Thx for this interview!
I’m a Cosmic Cowgirl!