TETON VILLAGE, Wyo. — Young electric guitar virtuoso, Daniel Danato, is on a freight train to stardom and his Cosmic Country quartet has plenty of swagger to fuel the trip. This was evident during his first-ever ruckus of a show in Wyoming last September, and his return to the same Mangy Moose stage this Friday will prove a harder ticket because of it.
Donato cut his teeth busking on the streets of Nashville when he was fourteen. On day two of busking, he wondered into Music City’s legendary Robert’s Western World on Broadway and was blown away by what he saw—the Don Kelley Band, known for a rotating cast of real-deal honkytonk musicians that performed nightly 1996-2020. By age sixteen, Donato had learned the band’s 100-song catalog and became the youngest musician to regularly play with the outfit, digging into classic material of Willie Nelson, Bob Wills, Jimmy Martin, Buck Owens, Bill Monroe, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and beyond.
“I learned how to play music in a way that many acts aren’t doing in the presence climate of where we are and what most people consume,” Donato told KHOL Jackson Hole Community Radio last fall, “…which is four musicians getting on stage and listening to each other and playing songs, and improvising and playing it dynamically. It’s a very human and organic experience.”
Along with with bandmates Sugar Leg on keys, Mustang McGee on upright and electric basses, and Noah Miller on drums, the Cosmic Country philosophy has evolved into improvisational Grateful Dead-inspired Americana and Flying Burrito Brothers-fueled country-rock twang. This is beat-up Telecasters, tie-dyes and old Levi’s that rock—far from the glitz of the Nashville machine.
“I’ve always fantasized about Wyoming. The amount of nature in the universe that is out there, I can’t wait to play music in [Jackson Hole]. It’s the thrill of a lifetime.”
Ox Presents Daniel Donato, 9 p.m. Friday April 7 at the Mangy Moose. Tickets are $29, available at MangyMoose.com.
