Nashville guitarist/singer/songwriter/bandleader Daniel Donato calls his band Cosmic Country, a moniker that’s both self-descriptive and a statement of purpose. It boasts an organic rock band aesthetic with plenty of roadhouse twang, a showcase for Donato’s instrumental virtuosity and facility for melodically infectious songcraft.

Bridging Nashville and the Great West, Kentucky and mid-60s northern California, tie-dye and plaid, it’s a world of his own, and a wide world of musical adventure at that. Donato’s own musical frequency was tuned at a young age growing up in Nashville. His father instilled in his son a discerning taste for quality music, filling young Daniel’s ears with legendary music of all genres. The rock meanwhile, came from Guitar Hero; the game was crucial to broadening Donato’s vistas of listening to JImi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, et al, as well as a particular attraction to Guns N’ Roses’ “Paradise City.

At age 14, at his dad’s suggestion, Daniel started busking around Nashville’s lower Broadway area and outside concerts, for eight hours at a time on the weekends. He began playing in honky-tonks with the Don Kelly Band and fell in love with country music. In his later teens, Donato discovered the wordsmiths like the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan and was inspired by the greatness of their writing.

Now, with years of touring and playing behind him, Donato’s latest release, Reflector, is filled with songs that prompt you to hit “repeat” over and over, and that stick with you long after they’ve finished playing. They hit the heart, the soul, the mind — and the cosmos, making it the kind of trip you won’t want to end any time soon.