Nashville’s Daniel Donato honed his guitar-playing skills while still in high school, performing with veteran act Don Kelley Band at legendary venues like Robert’s Western World. Donato says Kelley taught him about storytelling in country music, maintaining tempo and engaging audiences as a performer. Donato and his band, Cosmic Country, return to Eugene Feb. 7 at WOW Hall, touring behind last year’s album Horizons. The album has Hank Williams’ classic country music, the picking prowess of Buck Owens and the mystical searching of the Grateful Dead, positioning Donato as a rising star in both the roots music and jam band scenes. At age 17, Donato gigged for hours on school nights and then went to class the next day. One time, he recalls, his U.S. history teacher attended a show. The next morning in class, he gave Donato his entire Grateful Dead bootleg CD collection. From the Dead, he says, “I heard a band that brought value to the collective consciousness of listeners on a big scale.” The Dead used songs in the traditional country songbook, “but they were doing it in a way that was entirely singular to them.” Similarly, with Cosmic Country, “there’s a pace to our show that no one else is doing,” Donato says.

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country performs 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 7, at WOW Hall, 291 West 8th Avenue. Tickets are $25 and are available at WOWHall.org. The show is all ages.