SITTING DOWN WITH DANIEL DONATO
by Matthew Busch
I sat against the wall in a long hallway at Sleepy Hollow in Raleigh, speaking with Daniel Donato before his show. I was eager to do this interview, but I didn’t realize until it was over just how much it meant. I left feeling energized, in control of my own inner dialogue and more at peace and calm than I’ve felt in years. Okay, so let’s talk about Daniel Donato. If you’ve never heard the name, understand that he’s an outlier, with a hell of a story. He's put together a band called Cosmic Country that is going out every night and killing it, touring over 170 shows this year.
This story of success, grounded in a pathway of meeting the streets - the real-world versus a collegiate path, from busking on Broadway and watching the eyes of people walking by, seeing what riffs they like, what causes people to stop and take it in. It’s about actively listening to frequencies coming into the brain, and recognizing that we all have inner voices we have to put in check for creativity to work.
Where did it Begin? My guess is High School. Donato learned a lesson from a teacher he greatly admired named Mr. Chesser. Donato shared this story: “Chesser was a serious man. He showed up to school in a 3-piece suit, Allen Edmonds loafers and played Jazz throughout the day. He was the AP Literature teacher and very critical of our personal essays. I remember he gave me a 101 on a paper after I got three F's, and it was very frustrating because I loved his literature class. He could tell that the way I wrote the paper that I was being removed from my ego, and I wasn't trying to get in the way of the art. And I remember him saying it was because I did a good job getting out of the way on this.” At the heart of Donato is a person with an ego removed, and it’s integral to his success. Donato would depart from the classroom for busking on Broadway and in Nashville.
From Busking to Bars
What’s busking? Busking is playing music in the street or in public places for voluntary donations. Donato would attend high school through the week and then on Saturday morning, with the support of his dad, set up and play on Broadway from 10 am to 5 pm. “It was a great experience because I was able to see what caught people's eyes. What rhythms and songs most people catch on to and just how to handle a crowd that has no reason to be watching you at all, which no crowd ever really does until you give them one”, says Donato.
A seminal moment occurred the night he stepped into Robert’s Western Bar and heard the Don Kelley Band play. The band was tight, totally locked in, playing on the same page, and that was undeniable. Donato wanted to be a part of that, to learn from these older seasoned musicians, and to master the art of keeping a band tightly connected - it was the most important element of a band, Donato recognized it, and knew he wouldn’t get this stage time and experience in college. It’s easy to see- clear as day. Everything learned in busking told him he wasn’t going to make a living doing that, but it built confidence and provided assurance that he could, in fact, learn this craft on his own, taking ownership of it all. And so he hung around Robert’s and when an opportunity opened, he auditioned for Don Kelley’s Band and was hired, and it established a mentorship that would guide him along this Journey.
Lessons learned from Don
Playing with Don was hard: “I was learning four nights a week for four hours a night, intensely. Don was always on. It was the same arrangements, same setlist, and it was a marvelous experience. I would not have traded any one of those 464 shows for anything else in the world”, says Donato. Don was more than a band leader; he was a business owner who had to efficiently deliver the goods every night to stay in business. Freedom to creatively dabble just wasn’t there - it just couldn't be worked in. “Playing with Don, it wasn't really about having fun, it was to make the most amount of money possible, play the most songs possible and keep people coming back for as much as possible. And when you're working in the framework of a Honky Tonks, which are located with 63 other stages within a two block radius, you got to play music that way”, says Donato. Donato’s experience and lessons learned from Don as a bandleader are invaluable, and throughout the interview we come back to Don frequently. I learned how Don taught Donato to be a professional, how to stay disciplined and always hold tightly to practice and rehearsal, and how to create space for critique when the musicians didn’t play well. All of this would carry over as Donato chose to take the leap and tour on his own.
Taking the leap
Donato admits the leap was slippery and at times not absolute. Donato was able to fill that creative void through branching out and getting on the road, but realized shortly after that a lot of the bands lacked vision and that frustrated him. “I knew this wasn't using my full potential. I knew it, and I didn't like that. There's a part of me that when I'm not fulfilling my full potential, there’s a voice, and it's very steadfast and persistent that I realign and get back on the path. And so I knew in 2017 that I had to figure something out, and so I just took it upon myself to start emailing venues. I remember one day I sent out an email to 100 venues, and then I got three responses back and I booked my first tour”, says Donato. But what to call this band?
Call it Cosmic Country
“I was leaving Robert’s, and there was an old man named Donnie, who's this kind of gypsy wandering fella who doesn't really have a home but he's always at Robert’s. I was leaving one night, and he said what I did was cosmic country, and I thought it had a nice ring to it. It sounds like what I am. It sounds abstract, spiritual, and it sounds grounded and American. Even at that time (I was twenty-three), I just loved it, and ever since we've been doing it, and it’s proved to be a deeper thing”, says Donato.
Led by listening to frequencies
Donato is an excellent listener and listening is a common thread in Cosmic Country. I asked Donato: “How do you take songs that are generally not in your style and adapt them so well?” Donato responded: “There is a frequency that comes in. I don't know where directionally it is, but it comes in, and you listen to it and if you're patient, it tells you what to do. That’s the way the whole Cosmic Country western songs album came about - through that process.”
MB: “There’s a big difference between serious and serious fun, because sometimes with serious teachers, you wonder why they are being so serious?”
Donato: “Yeah, and even more scarily, why are you not being serious? What responsibilities are you disassociating with that are not going to go away, and that's the biggest thing as a band leader that I have to maintain. Some nights we play a show where everyone's like, fuck yea! And then the next day when we're in the van, and I'm pulling up the recording, and I begin to ask, was this really a great show? And we get into it and sometimes feelings get hurt. That's the thing about ego - it's hard to figure out a way on a collective level to evolve throughout all of these elements and seasons and episodes.”
Cosmic Country Next Year
Here’s Donato, speaking about next year's plans. “The biggest thing I’m learning from 2022 is that we need time off the road to go and write and then go and rehearse. Getting into the road, you can kind of get into this state of not being aware of everything you're doing. And if you really are being a musician – which is kind of what music is – you gotta go and develop new tricks. You got to go and develop new ways to enhance your craft. So next year in 2023, we're being more strategic about maybe not doing 170 shows, or maybe doing 100 and putting out only two albums, and I will continue putting out my podcast, The Lost highway”, says Donato
In parting, Donato offered my students an opportunity to create graphic design posters for his return to the Raleigh show in October, and he offered it not as a general nicety, but because he clearly sees the value of real-world application. Young people see what’s needed for other young people. In Donato’s words, “It’s marvelous”.