Jan’s Recap: Danny Gokey at Ho Chunk Casino (Baraboo, WI)

Danny Gokey Headlines at Ho Chunk Casino

May 27, 2010 in Baraboo, WI

About Me:  My daughter has threatened me with an intervention.  She can’t reconcile my Gokey-holicism with the sane mother that raised her.  When talking with the many fans outside the concert venue, and realizing that I have attended more Danny Gokey concerts than most anybody, it did dawn on me that she might have a point.  But considering you are reading my recap of a Danny Gokey concert, she is probably not going to be ask for your help in restoring my sanity.  Besides, I told her I am not going willingly!

Did I mention I’m looking forward to seeing Danny on June 6^th and on July 4th?  Oh, and then there’s….

Pre Concert

I bought two tickets to the Ho Chunk concert the minute they went on sale.  My husband, Ed, said he wanted to go with me. Cool!  Coincidentally, Country Weekly featured pictures of Danny and Ed in its Stars Up Close feature the very week of the concert! This made it really easy to have something to talk to Danny about in the Meet and Greet! Here’s a link to the article: http://iheartdannygokey.com/index.php/2010/05/23/scan-country-weekly-stars-up-close-with-danny-gokey/

As we walked towards the Ho Chunk bar to meet up with Pam, Cindy, Michelle, Jen, and Christy , a person walking by waved at Ed and I.  I turned around to see who it was and I could have kicked myself–it was Ivan!  I didn’t recognize him at first –he’s become very slim and he was wearing a hat.  When I saw him a little later, I told him he should have no guilt for eating the last of his birthday cake! Obviously, Danny and his band mates are working hard on keeping slim and fit!

The Meet and Greet

There were three groups waiting to go into a large room to meet Danny.  The first group were from the Casino (Rewards club?) The second were those of us that had SHF passes.  The third was a “Friends and Family” group.  Ninety people are a lot of people to meet Danny the hour before the show!  While waiting in line, I chatted with some very dedicated fans.  One woman had just been to the Wild Horse Show and she rattled off her next Danny events (See? I’m almost normal……) Another had been in Danny’s choir at Faith Builders International.  She remembered the young Dan,  just 20?, being too shy to get up on the stage in front of the congregation.  However, Pastor Pruitt wouldn’t accept a no from Dan.  It was obvious that she was very fond of Dan, knew his family and loved his music.  She told me she was going to tease him about having to pay to see him! By chance, she had the seat right next to me for the concert!  We both felt stymied that we couldn’t stand and dance for every song!

When it was our turn to meet Danny, I wanted Ed to go first so I could try to take as many pictures as possible. I swear Danny called Ed by name when he went up to hug Danny. Danny said he had not seen the Stars Up Close article.  I took a couple of pictures of them talking and laughing about Ed being in a country music magazine.  When it was my turn, I handed my camera to Michael Childers (the drummer–he has a steady hand with a camera, unlike me around Danny) I said hello and Danny and I hugged.  I asked him when all of us Ihearties could expect the IWNSGB to hit radio.  He told me June 21^st.  I told him we would  be ready to support it! He seemed very happy about it.  We chatted briefly about the magazine article.  Mike snapped a photo and I hugged him goodbye.

Next up was New Cindy.  She handed Mike her camera, but he was having trouble with it. I got a cute photo of all three of them intently working on the camera!  Closing our little group was Cindy’s sister in law, Debbie.  Prior to going in the room, she asked “Do we really get to meet Danny Gokey?”  I gushed about  how great he is with all of his fans.

The Concert:

Even though his speaking voice seemed just a little raspy,  Danny sounded great! We all love the huskiness of his voice, don’t we?  Any he seems to sing with the same intensity and power no matter how he feels.  If I had not read that Danny had been sick, I would have never known from his performance.

Because the best tickets went to Casino “rewards club” members, the big DG  fans were in the second section of seats.  Ho Chunk had two huge screens to the right and left of the stage; seeing the stage was no problem.  D sang every song from the album! He did talk about Sophia’s Heart Foundation and asked for text donations for the Nashville flood relief. And Danny  announced that the next single, IWNSGB would  go to radio on June 21^st!  He also did audience participation on What Hurts the Most and I Still Believe.

At mid point of the concert, Danny sat down on a stool and asked if it was ok if he just talked a little bit?  He asked the ladies “why is it so hard to keep you ladies happy?”  He talked about dating Sophia from 1997 until 2002.  By 2002, she told him that he had to “get it together” and they either had to get engaged to get married or break up.  He said his problem was he couldn’t keep a job.  He tried all kinds of things.  He even tried selling $2000 vacuums.  But he asked “who wants to take out a loan to buy a vacuum?” Danny said he did get serious about a job and then decided he would surprise her with an engagement proposal in a big way.  I won’t repeat the whole engagement story, because its been told before, but he did it with a flourish.  When it was time to find a volunteer for Back at One, a young woman jumped out of her chair and just headed to the stage!  Danny asked her 2 questions:  Are you 18? Do you have a current boyfriend or husband? ‘Cuz he said , “I don’t play that!“ Brandon sang a short solo of Raining on Sunday and Danny incorporated You Are So Beautiful and Ain’t No Mountain High Enough into Back at One.

When Danny said they were almost done, he invited everyone to come down front for the song Trouble!  He then performed My Best Days Are Ahead of Me, PYT and closed with Life is a Highway.  Danny was very exuberantly dancing, twirling, working with the crowd.  In response, the crowd was loving him, dancing and swaying!  The band was also really getting into it!  Hmmm….I may have this wrong, because I thought he only sang 3 songs with every one jumping and dancing, but maybe it was four songs.  I took some pictures because I ended up only 4 people away from the stage for the final songs!

Autograph Session

A long line of people waited to receive Danny’s autograph.  It went pretty smoothly.  DG merchandise was sold (Cds, T-shirts and  picture) right before the autograph table.  When it was my turn, I told Danny I had a very serious question, I asked Danny “How could you schedule the DG/SHF Cruise over the weekend of the Super Bowl?”  I asked him “What are you going to do if the Packers are in the Superbowl?”  “You could be at the Superbowl!”  He looked very pensive, with his hand supporting his chin.  He said he didn’t control the scheduling. And he asked me “Are you going to go?”  I said “Yes!”  He said “To the Superbowl?” I said “No! On the cruise!”  He laughed and gave me a big high five.  Ed’s turn was up next and Danny greeted him with a “So are you going on the cruise?”  In a slightly dumb founded voice (he hadn’t heard my conversation)  Ed said “Yeah!” Danny said “It’s going to be fun!“ And then they bumped fists.

The End

We stayed around for a little while longer, mingled and hugged all the ihearties.   It was time to head home and play this really good CD we have….I think you can guess that it was all very Gokey on the way home.