From American Idol to a Santa Rosa club

<p>About this time a year ago, Danny Gokey was performing weekly before a television audience of about 25 million and being anointed by “Idol” judge Simon Cowell as one of the favorites to contend for the title on season eight of “American Idol.”</p><p>He lasted all the way to the final three performers.</p><p>Friday afternoon the venue was decidedly different, the newly opened Santa Rosa club Chrome Lotus with 250 loyal supporters ready to get for their “Idol” fix.</p><p>Nine months after finishing behind crowned champ Adam Lambert and six months after the conclusion of the AI Tour, Gokey is playing a different sort of game - selling country music records.</p><p>He dove headfirst into the world of country music at the urging of Randy Travis and he never looked back.</p><p>“Going country was easy for me,” he said. “If you look at the show I covered four country artists. At first I didn't know if country would accept me.</p><p>“But when Randy Travis came to our show and told me that I should pursue country ... I thought ‘Wow.' For him to say that meant a lot to me. And it's going great. Country people are loving it and I'm loving it too.”</p><p>His single - “My Best Days Are Ahead of Me” and his debut album “My Best Days” have done unexpectedly well on the charts.</p><p>The single was actually supposed to be “It's Only” but it was switched last November to the highly successful “My Best Days Are Ahead of Me.”</p><p>“I am glad the single was changed because, as I came to find out when I did ‘Idol' a couple of weeks ago, we have a big following,” Gokey said.</p><p>Gokey's Santa Rosa gig was part of a radio promotion (Froggy 92.9 FM) tour taking him around California.</p><p>He performed 10 songs for a crowd of about 250, signed that many autographs, posed for that many pictures and then hopped in a grey van and took off for Emeryville where he was to do it all over again Friday night.</p><p>The West Coast portion of the tour now over, Gokey and his band are to head back to Virginia Saturday where a concert date in Hampton Roads Virgina awaits them. Then it's a few days off and back out on the ro ad for some tuneup performances before a 30-plus city tour as the opening act for the group Sugarland on their “Incredible Machine” tour that opens in April.</p>