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Today’s featured Bonnaroo artist is Daniel Donato. We first discovered Donato at the Farm and we have been fans ever since. He’s got a new album out and for those who believe a great album should feel like a full-blown journey — not just a playlist — Daniel Donato’s Reflector is your ideal travel companion. Clocking in at 66 minutes across 15 expansive tracks, Reflector is more than just a collection of songs; it’s an ecstatic musical immersion that blends tradition with cosmic curiosity. And when Donato brings this vision to the Bonnaroo stage, it promises to be one of the festival’s most transcendent sets.
A Nashville native is carving out a new lane in Americana. He calls it “Cosmic Country,” and Reflector is the genre’s glowing, genre-bending manifesto — where Southern rock anthems, bluegrass instrumentals, funky jams, and introspective lyricism swirl together into something both classic and cosmic.
At the heart of Donato’s sound is his searing Fender Telecaster tone — raw, radiant, and instantly recognizable. On songs like the rollicking “Gotta Get Southbound” and the electrifying “Dance in the Desert Pt. 2,” his guitar doesn’t just play — it speaks in tongues. Donato leads a killer band (Nathan Aronowitz on keys, Will McGee on bass, and Noah Miller on drums), forged in fire after 200+ shows in a single year, road-testing this material to near-telepathic tightness.
That road began on Lower Broadway, where a teenage Donato busked for hours before joining the legendary Don Kelly Band at Robert’s Western World. Playing four-hour sets steeped in the songbooks of Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and Bill Monroe, Donato gained a rare musical education — one that blended the grit of honky-tonk with the soul of storytelling. He’s carried that education forward, adding layers of psychedelia courtesy of a high school history teacher’s bootleg Grateful Dead collection and lyrical insight from Bob Dylan’s timeless narratives.
Reflector marks the moment where it all comes together. Produced by six-time Grammy winner Vance Powell (Jack White, Phish, Chris Stapleton), the album spans the Southern rock jubilation of “Lose Your Mind,” the slinky dual guitars of “Double Exposure,” the heartache of “Faded Lovin’,” and the high lonesome beauty of “Halfway in Between.” Paul Franklin’s pedal steel adds shimmer to four tracks, while the instrumental “Sugar Leg Rag” could’ve been pulled straight from a 1940s bluegrass revival.
But perhaps the most telling tracks are the twin movements of “Dance in the Desert” and the expansive closer “Weathervane” — moments where Donato’s dualities shine: electric and acoustic, inward and outward, grounded and galactic.
“The entire world that you see externally is a reflection of your internal world,” Donato says, explaining the album’s title. Reflector isn’t just a musical achievement; it’s the product of three years of personal excavation and transformation. It’s the sound of an artist not just finding his voice but fine-tuning it to the frequencies of both the earth and the ether.
Don’t miss Daniel Donato at Bonnaroo. He’ll be at This tent on Thursday, 10:45 – 11:45.
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