Daniel Donato (from the album Reflector

Daniel Donato (from the album Reflector

Daniel Donato (from the album Reflector available on Retrace Music) (by Bryant Liggett)
Daniel Donato’s sound is a self-described as Cosmic Country. It’s an apt description, and one that clocks him in with some hearty company in the likes of Gram Parsons or Doug Sahm, to name a few. On his sophomore effort, Reflector, he proves he’s welcome on the Cosmic Country job-site, and more than capable of lending a hand to support the genre, not only in the trippy realm but also throwing down CowPunk and Southern Rock. If Parsons and Sahm map their cosmic as a million miles from earth, Daniel Donato moves the needle a bit past the previous mark.
Every element of Classic and Indie Country is on hand and taken into uncharted sawdust dance-floor territory. An acoustic guitar intros “Rose in the Garden” before a twangy telecaster bangs around everywhere as Donato looks for love. He drops rode hard Cow Punk instrumentally with “Sugarleg and “Loco #9”, both total rippers with that Telecaster stealing the show and taking the band into jam-band world. “Gotta Get Southbound” nods to 70’s era Southern Rock, “Halfway in Between” is a sweet ballad, and curveballs are thrown across “Dance in the Desert” and “Double Exposure”, where Daniel Donato explores Ska and Dub.
“Half Moon Night” is ripe and ready to pack the floor of a Texas dancehall, and the closer in “Dance in the Desert Part 2” is an extended Psychedelic Country jam while picking at some Funk and Disco boogie just for kicks. Forget line-dancing and get ready to do that full on hippie twirl.
This is Cosmic Country and so much more, the Cosmic coming from stellar stunt-guitar work that moves the cuts from Traditional Country to tripped-out Roots Rock. This record is a banger, a fun listen that gives Country a kick into the Psychedelic West. (by Bryant Liggett)
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