Danny Gokey Releases Debut Album
Just this month, Danny Gokey’s debut album entitled, “My Best Days” was officially released and debuted at an astounding No. 4 spot on the Billboard 200 U.S. album sales charts after selling 65,000 units in its first week of release. This album, containing 10 country songs, also debuted at the No. 3 spot on the Country Album sales chart. Country music blog critics have all noted that this is the second-highest debut for a male country artist ever since Billy Ray Cyrus released “Some Gave All” in 1992. To round off his successful debut, “My Best Days” was also reported to have sold 19,000 digital copies, setting a new record for first-week digital sales by a new country artist in recent years. Surely, this is a sign that we can all expect more from the American Idol alum.
Regarding the single, “Best Days Are Ahead of Me,” Gokey said, “So many people knew me on the show from the tragedy of the guy who lost his wife. Before going on ‘American Idol,’ I was a very unhappy person. I was very hurt. Going on the show gave me a second chance. I followed a dream. I found a purpose. I’m happy now. I just found out through an A&R guy that the guy who wrote this song had also lost his wife and that’s why he wrote that song. I had no idea! It’s become an anthem for me. And now I relate to it even more.”
Daniel Jay Gokey, or more commonly known to mainstream fans as Danny Gokey, first caught the country’s attention when he became a finalist on the 8th season of hit Fox TV show American Idol in 2009, the year Kris Allen went on to win the title. Nevertheless, Gokey clearly made a mark among fans because of his warm personality and candor. In that same year, the 28-year-old Milwaukee native once again grabbed headlines and made the rounds of every country music blog out there when he announced that he is trying his luck in the country music scene.
Although he admits that he had a “gospel guy” vibe during his stint with the show, Gokey said he took to heart what guest judge Randy Travis said about exploring country music as a better musical option. Gokey says in an interview, “Country music has been a big influence on my life.” In fact, during his Idol stint, he covered not one, but four country songs from artists such as Lee Ann Womack and Rascal Flatts, whom he says is “one of my favorite groups.”
To the critics, he had this to say, “I always put my own voice in it. My voice is my voice. I never changed no matter what I did.” When asked about his decision to take Travis’ advice and go the country route, Gokey now says, “I’m so glad I did it.” Continuing to brush off negative comments posted from one country music blogto another, Gokey said in an interview that, “I have paid my dues,” to which he added, “I wasn’t an overnight sensation. I put in eight years of heavy work into my music while working a full-time job before ‘Idol’ came along.”
Currently, Gokey is busy preparing for his upcoming summer tour with Sugarland this summer. Preliminary dates and venues have already been announced over at his website: http://www.dannygokey.com/.
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