Watch Daniel Donato’s Paste Session from the Northlands Festival
We had a packed weekend of music at the Northlands Festival, filming a wide range of sessions for Paste Studio’s “On the Road” series. Our home base was the Maple Barn, a cozy, rustic, structure once used for maple syrup production. For the sessions, the barn was transformed into a colorful, eclectic space that honored its roots with vintage syrup memorabilia, while adding a playful modern twist: neon signs, string lights, and even a life-size cutout of Danny DeVito. We recorded a number of superb sets with talented artists over the whole jam, Americana, folk, and bluegrass spectrum, but Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country were without question one of the standout performances of the weekend.
The band opened with “Broadside Ballad,” a warm, homey tune that set the tone with its steady pace and familiar form and charm. “Along the Trail” followed, giving keyboardist Sugarlegg room to shine, with the tasteful soloing added depth without ever distracting from the group’s cohesion and musical conversation. The set closed with “Blame the Train,” the highest-energy moment of the session, showcasing Donato’s signature flatpicking prowess and cosmic musical sensibility.
All three songs are part of Donato’s upcoming album Horizons, out August 22. As Daniel describes it, the concept of the horizon is twofold: both the literal place where land meets sky, and a metaphor for human yearning, the sense that there’s always something just beyond reach, pulling us forward. That spirit was alive in this performance, even in its most relaxed moments. As if we weren’t excited enough for Friday’s release, they’ll make their headlining debut at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville that day to help celebrate the record.
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