After years of relentless practice, endless touring, and a fixed vision on his Cosmic Country ethos, Daniel Donato has plenty to celebrate. His latest, and first live release, Ryman to Robert’s is the celebration of a celebration. If you’re confused, here’s the math. To celebrate the release of his last album Horizons, Donato performed a sold-out show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on August 22, 2025. A venue a teenage Donato dreamed of playing as he performed over 450 shows next door at Robert’s Western World while part of Don Kelley’s Band.
To document the celebration of his Ryman debut and Horizons release, Donato brought along multi-Grammy winning producer, audio engineer, and mixer Vance Powell to pristinely record the entire evening on audio and video. An evening that didn’t stop at the end of the Ryman show. Afterwards, Donato and crew, bassist Mustang McGee, keyboardist Sugarlegg, and drummer Bronco Clark went next door to Robert’s for another lengthy set bringing a long day of music to a close well after 2 a.m.
Both concerts are perfectly captured on Ryman to Robert’s and is available digitally or a very full 5-LPs. The multimedia release also includes mini films showcasing the music and memories of the bucket list evening. To celebrate the Ryman to Robert’s release, Donato and crew are headed back to the Ryman for two more shows.
The 28-song Ryman to Robert’s is as if Cosmic Country turned into silly putty. You can stretch it in any direction possible and it happily just keeps going. The Ryman concert is there. If the two-set beast wasn’t enough, Donato threw in eight songs from the after show at Robert’s. A show where he personally placed the microphones in the same spots he and his father did years earlier as they made perfect sounding Don Kelley bootlegs in the hallowed room.
Slide&Banjo’s Marty Halpern sat down with Donato to relive the unforgettable memories captured that joyous Nashville night. While the distance from the Ryman to Robert’s is only a few feet, Donato’s path took many years and thousands of miles to accomplish. He begins by reflecting on the completion of a very long journey.
“I started at Robert’s when I was a little teenager. I cut my teeth there and learned there. A lot of my first experiences in life came from that place. For an artist to go from Broadway to the Ryman and sell it out. Then, the same night to go back and record an album on the stage where it all started had never been done at all in Nashville on any stage with any artist. I knew this going in and knew Nashville would not have any idea what to make of it.”
“At Robert’s, I discovered my love for live music. I was 14 when I saw the Don Kelley band. That’s when I fell in love with a band for the first time.” Donato remembers. “I loved Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. There’s a thing that happens; I think it finds its origin in the Grateful Dead is people really love specific shows. They love chasing specific songs. The Don Kelley band was that first band for me. They had such a vast catalogue of 150 songs. My dad and I would go and record them every week. Then listen back to the tape. We’d hope we’d get certain songs and request certain songs. For us, it was like loving a sports team.”
Donato’s journey from there is well documented. He hit the Nashville streets, busking for tips. His short-term goals were reasonable and achievable. Practice, practice, practice while saving up for a new guitar. The inconceivable thought of selling out the Mother Church of Country Music would take a trip of Cosmic proportions to achieve.
With the finish line of his first Ryman gig in sight, Donato looked back at every long, lonesome road that led him there. “All of these moments relate to each other in causation. There’s a unifying spirit that runs between them. It’s really cool. I love how each milestone that was the destination of one desire became the origin of a new one. I love it when the circular harmony is going on.”
The material in Ryman to Robert’s finds Donato and his band soaring musically. There’s no need to break down each song. The band is in top form all night. It’s the jubilation from the band and audience that leaps out of Powell’s mix. Capturing the intangible sets the release apart from a random Nugs show. You can feel Donato smiling although you can’t see him. You can feel the energy from the audience continually pushing the music deeper.
To capture more than the vocals and instruments that night, Donato had complete confidence in Powell. The nuance between a studio and live recording is vast. Especially when tasked with capturing the sound of a biblical venue. Donato offers his assessment of Powell’s work. “Brilliant. Vance has worked the Ryman many times. He has a specialty working in the recording studio, but he’s just as comfortable with live concerts. I think that’s from his work with Phish. Mixing the live Phish shows and Beacon jams he did with Trey Anastasio.”
“It’s a lot more intricate to mix a live record than to mix a studio one or so it seems to me.” Donato continues. “There’s a lot of muting that has to happen with all kinds of tracks for one song to shine in a studio recording. A vocal track in the studio is exposed to less volatile influences than a live vocal in the Ryman or Robert’s. He knows how to be a carpenter in that domain as well. It worked out perfectly.”
Like every Donato release, the 28-song Ryman to Robert’s is completely packed with music. Several songs from the after show were left off to keep things to only 5-LPs. Donato was amazed at the energy of the late-night Robert’s crowd. “It would have been 36 songs, but six vinyls is just too much. When we played at Robert’s, that was from 12:30-2:30 in the morning. People already had a 12-hour day at that point. There were some songs at the end of us playing them, the room was still full, but you could tell by how people were clapping they were tired. When we were mixing it, we were discussing the energy at Robert’s. I was like, this feels like Tipitina’s at 2 in the morning after you’ve seen Ivan Neville for the fourth time today.”
Not only was the crowd feeling the effects of a long day. Mustang McGee recalls playing the bass so late into the night. “First of all, that was one of the craziest days of my life. It’s thrilling that it’s captured in the release. That was the day I played close to six and a half hours of music. I didn’t get home until almost 5 a.m. Everything from that night is still swirling in my head. It’s a moment I’m really proud of with the band.”
McGee adds, “I feel we captured a great show. It’s the energy and mojo of playing such a touchstone venue for us. Personally, playing with Daniel, it’s cool to share an experience where you’re watching someone’s dream literally come true. A childhood dream is being realized. You’re there and it’s happening. You’re doing it together right before your eyes. That brought special energy to the equation and made for a great show.”
As Donato and crew steer their cosmic spaceship towards their next milestone, he reflects on a memory that hit him late on that fateful night, “I remember when I walked into Robert’s from the Ryman. I saw Vance up there and reminded him of a time when I was about 18. I was playing there, and he told me, ‘One day you’re going to want to make a record, and I’m just the guy to do it.’ So here we are ten years later and that circle came to a manifestation. That is really nice, and there is a photo of that exchange happening included in the album design and layout. Anyone who buys the record will see all the integral moments from that night.”
Donato concludes with his thoughts on having all aspects of his milestone night perfectly captured forever. “What a blessing. I’ve read that the purpose of art is to foreshadow a higher universal reality. To crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of eternity. What we’re doing with Ryman to Robert’s is a very earthly aim at such an enterprise. We’re crystallizing the emotions of that night into a format everyone can experience. We can share it with the rest of the world. The necessity of telling a story remains unchanged. We’re telling this story in many formats.”
Coming soon, we’ll have a lot more with Daniel Donato. After reflecting on the roads that led him from Robert’s to the Ryman and back, Donato looks ahead to the future of Cosmic Country. He unveils details of the band’s next musical project and dives deep into a minor change he’s made to recent live shows with the magnitude to completely reshape every show moving forward. Is there a cosmic shift for Cosmic Country ahead? Stay tuned.
Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country Ryman to Robert’s Retrace Records 2026
Check out all things Daniel Donato at https://danielbase.com/