Daniel Donato knows how to grind. Starting out as a young man busking in Nashville’s busy Lower Broadway as a teenager, Donato hasn’t stopped yet. He and his Cosmic Country band will perform in Houston on Wednesday, February 18 at The Heights Theater.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 14 and I’m 30 now so this will be my seventeenth year in this business so it’s been a lot of things but one word that describes it all is, it’s just been very authentic,” says Donato.
“It seems like in some universal sense I’ve been given an opportunity to never skip any single steps in my career. So every single rung of the ladder that is possible, I’ve done it. Obviously there’s ones above me that I have not hit yet, but every one that’s gotten me to where I am today I’ve not skipped a single step.”
Donato’s love for the guitar came from playing GuitarWizard.
“I wanted to transition from a video game to playing an instrument and writing music and I can still do that. I still have that cosmic power and we all do.”
It seems to have been that same cosmic energy that led him to the famous Robert’s Western World where he saw Nashville staple Don Kelley Band on stage. The Don Kelley Band served as the house band for the old honky tonk playing nightly sets for 25 years.
“When I heard this music and heard it presented in that way it was kinda like one of the three revelations that I’ve had in my life and I was just obsessed with it,” says Donato.
“I was obsessed with it in the same way that I was obsessed with Led Zeppelin when I first heard them. It was total fandom.” In fact, he ended up joining the band.
“The way that you play country music down at Roberts, it’s very traditional and it’s very honky tonk. That way of playing is a very blue collar working class approach to music.
“For the past 20 years it’s been the best honky tonk in Music City, which probably makes it the number one honky tonk on the planet in my opinion,” says Donato.
Whereas Willie Nelson essentially had to leave Nashville and return to Texas to create the Cosmic Cowboy genre, joining hippies and rednecks, Donato found his way and sonic path through constant touring.
Donato’s band features Nathan “Sugarlegg” Aronowitz on keys and guitar, Will “Mustang” McGee on bass and Will “Bronco” Clark on drums. Among the four of them the chemistry and connection to the music is palpable through their playing and harmonizing.
Donato describes the four of them as “A high wire act. It’s not as big of a band as Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys but we make just as much noise.”
Donato and his Cosmic Country bandmates share a sensibility not only for classic country but also a penchant for jamming in a way reminiscent of the Grateful Dead.
“I started getting into them and I would listen to how they would stretch out these country songs and how they’d approach these country songs because Jerry Garcia is an amazing singer but he’s also a very different singer than Merle Haggard so when he sings or when Bob would sing “Mama Tried” there’s a different essence to it.”
Donato’s latest album Horizons showcases the band’s range as they walk the line among groovy bass lines, spacey guitar licks and twangy well written songs. Donato credits their more than 300 shows between their previous album Reflector and Horizons with the band’s sound.
“That’s a ton of experience, it’s just so much experience that you can’t even really be fully empathetic and sensitive to it all. I can hear and feel that difference and I think it’s a very beautiful evolution. It’s probably more subtle to people that are new into Cosmic Country.”
Donato compares the growth to viewing a yearbook photo between years and seeing the subtle changes in a person’s expressions attributed to all of their contrasting experiences in their lives.
“The more that we embrace the experience of our lives and respect it and try to see what it’s teaching us and therefore you can create your life from a more honest place or a more high frequency place I call it. Horizons is in short, it’s very much a record of faith. It’s really about embracing this cosmic responsibility that we believe more than we know.”
Listening to Donato’s songs convey his vision of Cosmic Country and the higher meaning behind it all, a driving force in his art and language.
“I think most people see cosmic country for first time and rightfully they think it’s a combination of country and a psychedelic and improvisational approach, there is that but it’s not where it begins and that’s also not where it ends. It’s definitely a spiritual statement.”
Daniel Donato will perform on Wednesday, February 18 at The Heights Theater, 339 W 19th. For more information, visit danieldonato.com. $35.
This article appears in Private: Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2026.