BY ERIC VITHALANI Tucked away, just outside of downtown Wilmington, NC, Greenfield Lake is a sleepy little body of water where moss-cover...
BY ERIC VITHALANI
Tucked away, just outside of downtown Wilmington, NC, Greenfield Lake is a sleepy little body of water where moss-covered cypress trees stretch toward the sky like old Southern men waking from a nap. Picture the sun setting, a soft yellow light filtering through the April air and new spring leaves. Picture an egret gliding over the crowd, surveying nearly a thousand people huddled into the amphitheater at the lake's edge. It's a setting like this that invites you to slow down, be present. Friday night, Daniel Donato made sure we stayed that way.
No opener, Donato stepped right into it. Wide-brimmed hat, tie-dye shirt, sky blue Telecaster. The Cosmic Cowboy Band behind him from the first note. Nathan "Sugar Leg" Aronowitz on keyboards and vocals, running through a Nord Electro and a Hohner Clavinet, added layers that pushed the sound somewhere between soulful and cosmic. Will "Mustang" McGee on bass and vocals held down the low end with both an electric and an upright, that big warm acoustic body resonated like something pulled out of another era. Hat pulled low, head down, completely absorbed, McGee played the upright with quiet devotion. Will "Bronco" Clark on drums and vocals drove the whole Friday night trip. His playing was steady and unhurried, but had the entire crowd jumping. The chemistry on stage was easy and natural. And then there was the small cowboy Mickey Mouse figurine sitting on Donato's amp. No explanation. No introduction. Just Mickey, hat and all, presiding over the whole night like he'd been on every tour.
Seeing Donato live for the first time, like it was for me, you notice that his music doesn't happen all at once. It unfolds. Let's start with awareness. You know the name. Maybe you've heard a track, seen a clip, caught a recommendation from someone whose taste you trust. You show up curious but not yet converted. Then comes presence, the moment the music actually reaches you. Not just lands in your ears, but reaches you. For me it happened early, somewhere in the first few songs. Appreciation follows. You start noticing the details. The way the band breathes together with the audience. Completely inside the music is the way to describe that relationship for both performers and listeners. Then engagement. You stop watching and start participating. Tie-dye as far back as you can see, people of all ages on their feet, moving. You realize you've been moving too and forgetting to take photos, the reason you are there.
And then you arrive at joy along with Donato. It lives right there on his face, wide and unguarded, the kind of smile that doesn't know it's being watched. It was in every note and every genre his playing moved through. Because Donato's guitar doesn't stay in one lane. It doesn't even stay on one road. On Friday night, it hit every color of the rainbow, every shade in every tie-dyed shirt in that audience. Warm and bright one moment, deep and searching the next, psychedelic and untethered when the jams opened up.
Donato has a way of stretching things out without losing anyone, building and releasing
tension like he's been doing it for decades. The first set closed with "All Along the
Watchtower," and when that song opened up under the arched wooden roof of the
Greenfield Lake stage, golden light giving way to purple bleeding into the trees behind
the band and the energy surging forward, it was one of those moments that reminds you
why you show up in person. Some artists give you a show. Donato gives you a journey.
And on a warm April night on the banks of Greenfield Lake, Wilmington got exactly that.- [message]
- ERIC VITHALANI
Eric Vithalani lives in Surf City, North Carolina, after many years just down the road in Wilmington. A photographer and writer, he often documents live music across the Carolinas and beyond, as well as landscape, street, surfing and skate culture along the coast. He teaches English at a community college and is a published poet. His work and curiosity have taken him traveling around the world, though he always finds his way back to the North Carolina coast.
Read Eric's posts here.
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