Daniel Donato

There may be more than one artist with this name, including:

1) Daniel Donato (born in 1995) is an American country music guitarist who previously played with the Don Kelly Band and the Wild Feathers. He is based in Nashvile.

2) Daniel Donato (born sometime in the early 1980s) is a Sugar Land-based beat-maker and producer.

1) Daniel Donato (born in Nashville in 1995) is an American country music guitarist based in Nashville. His debut album, "A Young Man's Country", released in 2020, was recorded at Nashville’s Sound Emporium in two days and produced by Robben Ford.

Donato, at 16. became the youngest musician to regularly play the iconic honky tonk Robert’s Western World while gigging with the Don Kelley Band. Before he ever picked up a guitar, he discovered he had an aptitude for music via the video game Guitar Hero. At the time, he didn’t feel compelled to try his hand at the real thing until, about the age of 12, he heard Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “Paradise City”. “It was the first time I ever had a vision for my life,” says Donato. From then on, Donato lived and breathed music.

He began busking on lower Broadway in Nashville, playing eight hours a day on weekends for tips. It was while busking that he would give Don Kelley his business card every Saturday night, hoping for a chance to audition. One day, while still a junior in high school, he got the call to come play. He became a regular member of the band, performing four nights a week for more than 450 shows with the group.

Playing nightly with the Don Kelley Band was a formidable education for the young musician. Jamming regularly with Nashville’s most seasoned players, stalwart pickers who may have played in Buck Owens’ band, or Dolly Parton’s, or Alan Jackson’s, expanded his musical vocabulary while honing his stage presence. Along the way he was soaking up stories of adventures on the road and learning about the ups and downs of the music business. In short, he was gaining priceless life lessons and a musical education from wells that run deep into the musical history of Nashville.

During the days of his Robert’s residency, Donato continued to busk at various locales, even playing the Grand Ole Opry, and it is the sum of all these gigs that inform the sounds on his debut, A Young Man’s Country.

His follow-up, "Cosmic Country & Western Songs", was released in 2021.

2) Daniel Donato (born sometime in the early 1980s) is an American Sugar Land-based beat-maker and producer. Growing up off the hard subset streets of Fondren during Houston's harsh crack epidemic, he learned at an early age how to hold his own. His strength shows through in pounding beats like 2006's 'newone'. His 'pookie2' has been described as "electrical music… a solid wall of sound!" (charz2k).