Some bands pass through New Jersey, and some treat it like home. On Friday, October 16th, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country left no doubt about which kind it is. The band sold out the legendary Stone Pony in Asbury Park, its third consecutive year headlining the venue in October. Donato led on guitar and vocals, with Nathan “Sugar Legg” Aronowitz on keys, guitar, and vocals, Will “Mustang” McGee on bass and vocals, and Will “Bronco” Clark on drums and vocals. The sound was the one the group is known for, classic country picking carried out into long, psychedelic rock jams, and afterward Donato thanked the crowd for packing the room and called the Garden State his old home place. Fans of this world can keep up with it on JamFest Radio.

A Slow Burn Into the Cosmos

The first set opened with “Lose Your Mind,” a song Donato wrote with Marshall Abbott, and it stretched past fourteen minutes, blurring the line between country and cosmic almost immediately. Donato’s guitar unspooled in long, rippling lines while Aronowitz answered on keys, and the rhythm section of McGee and Clark had the floor moving early. From there the set leaned into railroad imagery and heartache, passing through Waylon Jennings’ “Waymore’s Blues,” Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train,” and Bob Wills’ “Faded Lovin’,” then turning darker with Donato’s own “Lady Justice.” A gentle take on Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin'” carried the mood outward before the band brought the house down with “Why You Been Gone So Long” and a spooky season “Boogie Man,” finishing the set with “Passing Storm.”

A Jersey Welcome, Sopranos Style

The second set began with Alabama 3’s “Woke Up This Morning,” the theme from The Sopranos, which doubled as walk out music. The band first played it last year with a guest, Asbury Park’s own Danny Clinch. Donato leaned into the local flavor from there, talking about being born in New Jersey, his early memories of Seaside Heights, and the breakfast sandwiches he grew up on, egg and cheese with pork roll included. He then put the great regional question to the crowd, pork roll or Taylor ham, and the room declared pork roll the clear winner.

Trains, Tall Tales, and a Dead Tribute

With the vote settled, the set pulled out of the station with the instrumental “Locomotive #9,” Clark’s drumming imitating churning gears while McGee opened on upright bass. A murder ballad, “Lay Low Lucy,” picked up the dark thread from the first set, and at its close the guitar and keys locked in note for note, drawing smiles from Donato and Aronowitz. “Blame the Train” showed off the band’s vocal harmonies, “The Rainbow’s End” let Aronowitz’s keys fall like raindrops, and “Broadside Ballad,” a tall tale about the eighteenth century river legend Mike Fink, became the launch pad for a long jam that climbed into the cosmic stratosphere before flowing straight into the fast moving instrumental “Hangman’s Reel.” Because October 16th was also Bob Weir’s birthday, the band followed with “Sittin’ on Top of the World,” the Mississippi Sheiks song the Grateful Dead helped popularize.

Into the Dark, Then a Skeleton Dance

The mood turned grave for Blind Willie Johnson’s “It’s Nobody’s Fault but Mine,” sung by Aronowitz, who also picked up a guitar. The set then lifted into “Hi-Country,” a mountain train ride written by Donato, McGee, and Aronowitz, before “Luck of the Draw” turned funky and rolled into “Sugar Leg Rag,” a runaway train rush. The main set closed with “Dance in the Desert,” which one account likened to a skeleton dance party worthy of a classic cartoon, only with soul and groove. McGee returned to the upright bass for the encore, Merle Haggard’s “Honky Tonk Night Time Man.” The band’s next big spooky season stop is Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is set to perform “Donato’s Inferno” for Halloween.