Album Review – Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country – “Horizons”

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Classic Country (#510.1), California Country (#510.7), and Cosmic Country (#563) on the Country DDS.

Why on God’s creation would anyone ever voluntarily place themselves in the audience of Gavin Adcock or some other such filth when you could lose yourself in the vast array of sonic landscapes that Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country presents for you to explore. Push play, and unlock gobs of pure listening joy that also confer an expansion of the consciousness and greater earthly understanding.

This isn’t just mere “entertainment.” Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country is the bold exploration of the vast outer regions of what is possible in country music, while still lovingly delivering all the twang you could ever want, and remarkably staying tethered to the true traditional country modes … until it’s time to take a step further into the great unknown.

Daniel Donato commenced his career on the streets of Lower Broadway in Nashville before he earned his way onto the stage of Robert’s Western World where only the hottest Telecaster players are allowed to plug in. He did his time and more running through all the old country standards. But the whole time he was also hoarding Grateful Dead bootlegs, and just like Captain Trips himself, tracing the parallel lines between American roots music and psychedelic expansion.

You get all of this in one album titled Horizons, but it really is two distinctive experiences, facilitated by a 15-song track list, and a couple of songs stretching to 10 minutes or more. The first eight songs are where you will find Donato’s country influences rising to the surface, with succulent displays of hearty country instrumentation, from Telecaster, to fiddle and steel guitar, to honky tonk piano.

The opening song “Blame The Train” is just a straight traditional country heater, and it takes all of two second for you to affirm this is what you need to be feeding your ears. When Donato leans more into the songwriting aspect of his country influences, it gives you vibes of classic California country, sort of like New Riders of the Purple Sage. But it’s still very much a strong country music experience.


Then you get to the 9th song on the album called “Hangman’s Reel” with its fetching, but distinctly funky opening guitar groove and think, “Okay, now we get to the jam band portion of the repertoire.” But this becomes a false positive as a the fiddle cuts in and you’re launched into the most infectious hoedown you’ve perhaps ever heard, complete with saloon piano, and of course, Donato’s blazing guitar.

Then you call up the 10th track “Prairie Spin,” and you think to yourself again, “Okay, now we get to the jam band portion of the repertoire,” and this time you’re right. But even as a country fan, at this point you’ve been so satiated on country twang, you’re fat and sassy as you enter the overtime, extra-curricular phase of the record. And if you’re a jam band fan, this is what you’ve been waiting for.

No matter your musical alignment, what Daniel Donato and the rest of his Cosmic Country crew accomplish on the epic, 11-minute jam “Chore”—especially in the second half—is something even the most accomplished jam bands will hold in awe. Daniel Donato is to country what Billy Strings is to bluegrass.

Donato’s own acolytes though will be the first to admit that he’s not some stellar singer. And though his compositional skills are on excellent display throughout Horizons, you would call him a top tier songwriter. This means that within the 15 tracks of this record, there very well might be tracks that you leave behind.

But you’re here for all the other moments that take you places other albums and musicians just fall short of. Whether it’s a country instrumental, or an extended acid jam, you just can’t help but be mesmerized by the instrumental prowess, and the compositional imagination Daniel Donato and his accomplices evidence on Horizon. It reminds you why you’re a music lover, and how blessed you are to be one with the knowledge of Daniel Donato.

8.2/10

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Purchase/Stream Horizons

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