Watch: Daniel Donato Welcomes Vince Herman, Lindsay Lou, Jon Stickley and More at WinterWonderGrass Steamboat
Over the weekend, WinterWonderGrass returned to Steamboat Springs, Colo. for its 12th annual staging. Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country signed on for their first booking at the festival known for keeping the intimate, independent and highly collaborative atmosphere of bluegrass booming through the colder months, and the band’s Friday and Saturday evening sets exemplified the event’s spirit with some exciting sit-ins.
On Feb. 28, to wrap the first day’s festivities, Donato and company helmed a late night set on the festival’s side stage. The band’s first engagement of the event featured a dazzling array of fan-favorite originals and well-loved covers like “Walkin’ the Dog,” “Jack-A-Roe” and “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” but true highlights arrived with some top-tier impromptu collaborations. Rising guitarist Kyser George joined for “Big River” and “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms,” then iconic Leftover Salmon frontman Vince Herman supported “Are You Ready for the Country,” “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Foggy Mountain Top.”
Donato and his tried and true backing ensemble of keyboardist Nathan “Sugar Legg” Aronowitz, bassist Will “Mustang” McGee and percussionist Will “Bronco” Clark took the main stage on night two just before a headline set from Leftover Salmon. After stepping into the spotlight with the recent original “Blame the Train,” the band built momentum through Reflector standout “Rose in a Garden” before seguing into a sound more suited for the festival with a cover of “The Gold Rush” in the style of Tony Rice. To harken back to that bluegrass standard’s roots, the ensemble peeled back its instrumentation for a raucous full-band beatbox breakdown.
Donato and the Cosmic Country band welcomed their first guests on the Reflector centerpiece “Half Moon Night,” which veered from its typical hard-rocking sound with hypnotic picking from Golden Highway banjoist Kyle Tuttle and celebrated flatpicking guitarist Jon Stickley. The group kept on through originals like “Lady Justice” and “Chore” and the traditional “Hangman’s Reel” before moving to the set’s end with a rapid-fire medley of “Lose Your Mind,” “Waymore’s Blues” and “Mystery Train.” Finally, to close out the penultimate performance of the evening with Donato called Tuttle and Stickley up again alongside vocalist Lindsay Lou to encircle the microphone on “Banks of the Ohio.”
Daniel Donato will return to the stage on Thursday, March 6, with a performance at Kenny’s Westside Pub in Peoria, Ill. For tickets and more information on his 2025 tour itinerary, visit danieldonato.com/tour
Watch fan-recorded videos of “Are You Ready for the Country,” “Half Moon Night” and “Banks of the Ohio” below.
