LIVE REVIEW // Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country: A Twangy Odyssey to Psychedelic Nirvana

Before Daniel Donato, frontman for Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, hops on the stage at Garcia’s to begin a jam-packed four hour set on March 7, the air is already hazy from pens snuck in, despite the clear “No Smoking” policy. But no one seems to mind. Tie-dye shirts with jam band logos – The Grateful Dead, Phish, Goose, Billy Strings – are the main choice of apparel, and a few people in the front have already begun dancing to the pre-show playlist being played over the speakers. 

At 8:10, the band (Daniel Donato, lead vocals and guitar, Nathan Aronowitz, piano, guitar, backing vocals, Will McGee, bassist and backing vocals, and Noah Miller, drums) suddenly appear on the stage and begin playing “Hi-Country,” a perfect song to start the night. After playing “Luck of the Draw,” a short but sweet version that transitions into “Sugar Leg Rag,” where Arnowitz, starting on guitar rather than piano, stunned the crowd with a falsetto reminiscent of Frankie Valli, harmonizing with Donato’s soft but powerful lead. 

About an hour after they started playing, the band launched into a rendition of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” which Donato had covered in his 2020 album A Young Man’s Country. Arnowitz, quickly becoming the star of the show, seems to channel Bonnie Raitt’s 1974 version of the song while he harmonizes with the rest of the band, and completely stands out while playing synth piano during the jam that follows –  and yes, synth piano on a John Prine classic completely works.

It’s at this point that the show begins to become transcendent. The jams are crisp and overwhelmingly enjoyable, and the audience, even the men in line for the bathroom, can’t help but nod their head to the cosmic country coming from the stage. The four on stage seem almost impressed with their playing – Arnowitz grins from ear to ear after blowing through a hot jam on his piano, and Donato even breaks his focus at times, appearing bewildered at what he had created in the last two hours on stage. When McGee, bassist, turns to standing bass, the whole show turns from just cosmic to cosmic country. 

Donato is known for his unique blend of traditional country music with modern psychedelic and acid rock jams, which he calls “Cosmic Country”. He’s taken inspiration from Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed, classic country guitarists, as well as Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, and Pink Floyd. Halfway through the show, Donato even went back to his roots of busking in Nashville and playing with house bands with a cover of The Highwaymen’s “Big River,” released in 1958 but repopularized by the Grateful Dead in 1970. McGee puts away his bass guitar and turns to standing bass for the country song, and the show only goes up from there. The standing bass moves the already cosmic show into cosmic country territory, and the four communicate together, letting each musician have their own solo on “Big River,” a rendition so long and hot that the crowd paused in amazement at the end of the song for a moment to let the final note sink in before erupting in applause. 

The band plays another homage to Johnny Cash in a blissful instrumental jam of “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” which Donato had recorded for his 2021 album Cosmic Country and Western Songs. The studio version, which is almost nine minutes long, is put to shame by this live version, almost twenty minutes of straight jamming from the band. 

The second set’s jams were fast paced and ridiculously hot, mirroring a Grateful Dead show’s rocking second half. The band delights on “Valhalla” and “Love Shack,” with a heady, repetitive jam following. 

Arnowitz, piano, steals the show throughout, blissfully putting his own funk rock spin on the show, reminiscent of Down Boy, the other band he’s in with drummer, Miller. 

Towards the end of the concert,  the jams are off the charts, spurring the entire crowd, including the bartenders and crew, to dance along. The long, twangy version of Donato’s “Justice” is the beginning of a long-rocking, rhythm-filled end to the set, firing the crowd up for three more songs. The last song, “Double Exposure,” is one last heady, brightly-played jam that almost hits Donato’s “Fire on the Mountain” jam status (The Dead song was covered by Donato in a wild, ten-minute long version on his Young Man’s Country album). No noise is louder than the band, and at the end, they all throw their hands up triumphantly before disappearing as quickly as they came on. It’s 11:34, the band has been playing almost non stop for four hours, they are obviously blissfully aware of the music they created, and it’s obvious that the crowd is too from the amount of applause that follows Donato’s last note. 

Words: Skyler Martin // Photos: Will Van Praagh

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