Draft:Daniel Donato

Daniel Donato (born April 6, 1995) is an American musician and songwriter. He is influenced by a wide range of styles and guitar players, including country musicians such as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Bob Wills, Marty Robbins, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, as well as jam band pioneers, Grateful Dead, and their lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, Phish and hard rock bands like Guns N' Roses and blues rock guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. He has performed live with Billy & the Kids, led by Bill Kreutzmann, founding member of Grateful Dead,, and other bands/musicians such as Widespread Panic, Billy Strings, Bob Weir, and Umphrey's Mcgee.

In 2021, he formed his band, Cosmic Country, playing one of their first shows on the street in front of a Widespread Panic concert at the Riverside Theater (Milwaukee). The band has since toured the country building a close knit fanbase and released their first album of all original songs, Reflector, on Nov. 10, 2023. The band is known for their high-frequency shows and taking their audiences on a cosmic musical journey, regularly playing 3 to 4 hours of music. Cosmic Country is made of up Daniel (guitar/vocals), Will "Mustang" McGee (bass, vocals), and Nathan "Sugarleg" Aronowitz (keyboards/vocals).

Daniel lived in Atlantic City, NJ until 2002 when his family moved outside of Nashville, TN. At the age of 12, partially from his experience playing Guitar Hero and his wide-range of musical influences, he began playing guitar. At 14 he was busking on the streets of Nashville, TN and would soon be playing gigs at the legendary honky-tonk Robert’s Western World and joining local mainstay, the Don Kelly Band, and playing as a session musician. Just a few years later, he released his own music, including the Starlight EP in 2019 and A Young Man's Country in 2020 before forming his band Cosmic Country. Since then, he released two albums, Cosmic Country & Western Songs (2021) and Reflector (2023).

Daniel plays Fender Telecaster guitars, most recently a custom model made by DNG Custom Guitars. He has also published a guitar instructional book, The New Master Of The Telecaster: Pathways To Dynamic Solos.

Discography

 * Starlight [EP] (2019)
 * A Young Man's Country (2020)
 * Cosmic Country & Western Songs (2021)
 * Reflector (2023)