Steel Rails and Mountain Trails: Railroad Earth Steams Into Pittsburgh with Yonder Mountain, and Daniel Donato

by Dave Parsons

The late summer evening gave way as concertgoers filtered into Stage AE’s intimate indoor concert hall, leaving behind Pittsburgh’s gleaming, muggy skyline for the warm embrace of a perfectly climate-controlled venue. Stage AE is purpose-built for nights like this, an indoor hall conjoined to an outdoor lawn by a reversible stage and a sound system tuned for clarity more than brute force, part club, part amphitheater, all intent on sightlines and sound that land true.

Opened in 2010 on the North Shore, cradled between PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium, and on the original land occupied by Three Rivers Stadium, it is as tough and gritty as the teams that anchor it on either end.  The steel-town folks decided salvation on this Sunday would be found on downbeats and footfalls. You could pick out the die-hard fans by their well-worn T-shirts, and enthusiasm for what was about to take place. A dad on the rail with his wide-eyed daughter explained that what she was about to hear wasn’t country or bluegrass but a family argument between cousins who all brought instruments.

As the evening’s opening act, Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country delivered a spectacle on how to expand minds and prime souls for the journey ahead. Donato, the 28-year-old Nashville guitar slinger who’s been turning heads in Music City’s most discerning circles, emerged with his band like a cosmic cowboy.

His approach to country music, if we can still call it that after he’s run it through his kaleidoscopic filter, is both reverent and revolutionary. He takes the bones of traditional country songwriting and flesh them out with improvisational muscle.  The crowd, initially polite but reserved, began to loosen as Donato and crew played extended jams. Here was where the magic happened: a traditional country shuffle morphs into a space-rock odyssey, complete with effects-laden guitar work that painted sonic landscapes across the venue’s high ceilings. The rhythm section was as tight as a Mason jar and twice as dependable, providing the pull that kept Donato’s flights together.

Donato himself, in a flannel shirt, with vocals just as warm and cozy, carried just enough Nashville twang to honor tradition while his guitar work pushed boundaries with confidence. Between songs, his easy banter revealed a musician comfortable in his own skin and genuinely excited to be sharing the stage with tonight’s headliners.

As the opening set climaxed, Donato and crew left the stage satisfied that the crowd was now primed and ready for what was to come.

Yonder Mountain String Band followed with the danceable authority of a group that helped drag progressive bluegrass, or jamgrass if you prefer, into the 21st century without losing the Saturday-night barn dust on its boots.  Their discography sprawls across a dozen studio records and a fistful of live releases, and recent years brought the Grammy-nominated Get Yourself Outside, a record that merged everything together.

Yonder’s set was a reminder of how improvisation can be a form of hospitality. They lay out a groove like a well-set table, then pass dishes until everyone’s had a helping.  The mandolin takes a slice, which gets re-plated as a banjo answer.  A fiddle run spills into the guitar, followed by a bass walk that the whole room hears and follows.

A cluster of twenty-somethings near the rail tried to waltz, then surrendered to a pogo that fit better, while a silver-haired couple kept time with the polite minimalism of people who once closed down college gyms to New Grass Revival. One security guard down front, head bobbed while never breaking posture or his eyes on the crowd. It’s this public-square feeling that Yonder has always been good at: the old-time string band as a platform for whatever your feet need to do.

What separates Yonder Mountain from the pack isn’t just their obvious talents, but knowing when to go full throttle and when to pull back, creating a musical conversation that draws the listener in rather than overwhelming them. During Pretty Daughter, the band demonstrated this perfectly, starting with just Kaufmann’s bass and Johnston’s banjo before gradually building to a climax that had the entire concert hall on its feet.

The crowd’s energy reached a peak during Troubled Mind, a number that found audience members dancing wherever space allowed, allowing their inhibitions to be led by the music. As Yonder Mountain’s 75-minute set drew to a close, the audience delved deep into the music in witness to the chemistry between the four musicians. This is a band that has maintained its passion and creativity across two decades, refusing to rest on its considerable laurels.

Night had fully taken the river outside the doors by the time Railroad Earth took the stage. The North Shore lights did their postcard thing, reflected in the slow water. Pittsburgh doesn’t blare its skyline so much as glow it, and that glow leaks into music on nights like this. There were a few dozen people outside on the sidewalk listening to the show.  Inside, the room that can scald for rock shows instead felt tuned for lyric, the mix putting voices dead center while giving each instrument its own lane.

By the time Railroad Earth took the stage, the crowd had been properly prepared for lift-off, emerging with that particular grace they’ve cultivated over two decades. If you came looking for a fixed setlist, you were missing the point and gaining something better.  This tour supports their latest album, All for the Song, but the setlist pulls from every aspect of their career.

And, make no mistake, either, as this is very much a band in the truest sense, with each member contributing essential elements to the whole. They did a few standoffs, band members facing each other, and challenging each other to one-up their efforts.  The crowd, now numbering close to the venue’s capacity, settled into that particular zone that marks the best jamband experiences: completely present, entirely engaged, riding the musical waves wherever they might lead.

Midway through their set, Railroad Earth acknowledged their tour companions with a heartfelt tribute, praising both Daniel Donato and Yonder Mountain for their contributions to keeping American roots music vital and growing.   Members of both Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country and Yonder Mountain String Band joined Railroad Earth on stage for an impromptu super-session. What could have been a chaotic mess instead became a class in musical communication, with eleven musicians finding their individual voices within the collective whole.

The crowd’s reaction to this musical summit meeting was pure joy. Strangers embraced, phones were forgotten in favor of lived experience, and for twenty minutes, the venue became a temple of American music. This is what the jamband scene at its best has always been about: the breaking down of barriers between performer and audience, the creation of community through shared musical experience.

The audience’s enthusiastic response to all three acts suggested a hunger for this type of music that extends far beyond the traditional jamband demographic. Young faces in the crowd seemed particularly engaged, suggesting that these sounds are finding new ears and new hearts with each passing year.  The fact that this tour has been so successful suggests that there’s a real hunger for authentic musical experiences in our increasingly digital world. People want to gather, want to experience music as a communal activity, want to be part of something larger than themselves.

As the lights came up and the crowd began its reluctant exodus from Stage AE, the feeling wasn’t one of ending but of beginning. This evening had been a reminder of what American music at its best can accomplish: the creation of community, the celebration of individual artistry, and that traditional forms can continue to evolve without losing their essential character.

Daniel Donato Cosmic Country Photo Album

Yonder Mountain String Band Photo Album

Railroad Earth Photo Album