Daniel Donato puts the CO in Cosmic Country at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the latest episode of the venue’s Trail Mix Sessions series.
Filmed on July 19th before Donato and his band opened for The String Cheese Incident, the session features a stripped-down, mostly acoustic set comprised of three songs off his forthcoming studio album, Horizons—his second consecutive release of all original music—including “Sunshine in the Rain”, “Broadside Ballad”, and “Blame the Train”.
Between songs, Donato waxes philosophical about the spiritual gravity of Red Rocks and the freedom of the present moment, channeling his trademark mix of cosmic insight and psychedelic wisdom.
“No matter how much production we put into a venue, it’ll never beat the production that this planet has instantiated for us at a venue like Red Rocks. There’s a cosmicity to it,” he muses after the opening song. “There’s a reason why so many amazing and enduring beautiful experiences are had by individuals for decades at this venue. There’s all kinds of different word symbols that people use when they’re talking about what is unqualifiable and eternally mysterious. Some people call it universe, some people say the cosmos, some people say dharma, some people say God. And so what is cosmic to me is always changing and revealing itself to me more and more, moment by moment, every day that I’m trying to seek it and serve what is most cosmic.”
Before finishing the session with “Blame the Train”, he describes the liberating power of focus and intention. “There’s the great performers of our time, and athletes of our time, where people talk about how they get into a zone before they go and play—not like Dewey Cox where he has to think about his entire life before he plays, kind of a thing. But I definitely try to focus, because I think focus is a form of freedom,” he explains. “So if you can focus on what you’re doing and commit yourself to that moment, the moment’s bandwidth has the capacity to take everything you can bring to it and create something with it, so I’m trying to do that, and it’s really easy to do that at Red Rocks. And there will be individuals that I speak to after shows where their experience is just so remarkable and beautiful that it feels like the experience I’m having, that I’m trying to have sometimes. I’m just so grateful there’s that much beauty to go around.”
Watch Daniel Donato’s Trail Mix Session below.
Donato is currently on tour and will celebrate the release of Horizons later this month with his headlining debut at Nashville’s famous Ryman Auditorium on August 22nd, before hitting the road in support of the album this fall. He also has upcoming shows with Railroad Earth and Yonder Mountain String Band and a one-off gig supporting Old Crow Medicine Show in October. Click below for a full list of tour dates and head to his website for tickets. Pre-order/pre-save Horizons here.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country – Trail Mix Session