Jan’s Recap: Danny Gokey at Delaware County Fair (Walton, NY)

Danny Gokey in Walton, New York

Delaware County Fair, opening for Lady Antebellum (August 21, 2010)

WARNING!  As is experienced in most active addictions, seeing Danny Gokey live is going to result in intense cravings to finagle your way to more and more shows.  Normal behavior patterns will be abandoned, sleep deprivation is likely to occur as you “live” on the Iheartdannygokey.com website. New, intense connections will form with complete strangers from different states, different countries, AND different continents.  So far no alliances have been reported with beings from different planets.  However, it is possible they are in earthly disguise*, and are already attending Danny’s concerts.

_{Hmmm…Steph* appears to be everywhere…how does she do that?  And she has not been seen actually boarding a plane….  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.}

The Decision

Should I go?  About 3 – 4 weeks before Danny’s first concert as an opener for Lady Antebellum, I was experiencing Gokey withdraw.  See warning above…. Toni had been dangling an available ticket (figuratively) to the Walton show while I was in a weakened state.  Those of you that know me, know I “blame” many Danny shows on defenseless Toni.  This is what she gets for not writing the recaps.  But then, you would all hate me if she didn’t concentrate instead on her awesome videos of Danny!

The Concert Day

The day opens as a  beautiful day in Albany, New York.  We would only have a two hour drive.  The tickets indicated that the gates to the concert at the Delaware County Fair would not open until 7PM.  What time should we leave for Walton?  Is 8 hours before the gate opening too soon?  Its never too soon if you are anticipating seeing Danny in concert.  Away we go!

After only an hour on the interstate, we start the rural drive to this county fair.  A quick grab of food and we’re back in the car.  As we wind up and down the hilly countryside, amongst old farmsteads (many of them in not so great repair), we take consecutively less traveled roads.  Where is this concert and how can Lady A and Danny be playing so far off the beaten path?

After about a 40 minute drive on these curvy roads, we descend into the very quant “city” of Walton.  Its Victorian homes, antique shops and old store fronts tell me this was once a thriving agricultural commerce center.  When Googling “Walton NY”, no directions appear for the concert venue. Thankfully we see signs to the FAIRGROUNDS as we turn left, right, etc.  Good news!  We see a Ferris Wheel and a grassy field that is more than half full of trucks and cars–and its only 1PM!

The Fairgrounds

We enter the very busy, tightly packed, agricultural fair.  Its got all the pigs, sheep, cows you would expect for a county fair.  It also has competitive horse events, cowboy hats for sale (asics, sorry, I didn’t have room in my carry-on luggage–or it would have been yours!) fried food, carnival games, rides AND a two sided grandstand that has a dirt field between it.  I’m pretty sure this is used for riding events, demolition derbys, and tractor pulls, but I’ve never seen a concert set up in a venue like this.  The stage is tucked into one side of the grandstand.  Chairs are being set up on the dirt field.  That’s the special Track Seating for our tickets.  It’s closest to the stage.  We find two devoted ihearties (Hi Lori and Emily!) holding the very FRONT of the line for the track seating.  Since its first come for these seats, you must hold your place in the line.  Considering they both have come from Texas, I’m not feeling so extreme about coming from Wisconsin for this show.  We marvel that this very small town, in rural New York was able to snag Lady Antebellum!  We also are very excited for Danny to be the only  opener for this fabulously successful group.

Weather wise, we marveled how much easier it was to wait in line now, than it had been in Wisconsin, in March, for the Turner Hall show!  Its 75 degrees, but starting to feel like rain, oh a drop or two falls, but we are not seeing any black clouds.

The Crowd Forms

Through the rest of the afternoon more Danny fans join us:  Toni’s friends from work, Amy from Maine, Kristin from MA, Becky from Ohio, Tonya from Long Island, NY, Jen from Milgokey, Val  from NJ.  Soon we are nearly 20 Gokey supporters in a field of Lady A fans.   A couple of the Danny fans are very nervous about the Meet and Greets. The info and passes were available around 5:45- 6PM.  Meet and Greet was set for 7:10.  This is tight timing with the gates opening at 7, but, as always, I think things in Dannyland always seem to work out.  I’m not worried.  We take turns holding down Gokey Village in the line.  We get breaks to explore the fair.  I, and others, are on the lookout for Danny’s bus.  I see a big tour bus by the edge of the far grandstands, but its not the color of Danny’s.  The sound check starts very late–but its Charles of Lady A we hear. No Gokey.  Finally we hear Danny and his band warming up

As the clock crawls past 6:30, 6:45, 7 and even 7:15 (!!!), there is true worry in Gokey Village.  Should we leave for the M&G ? Will it be cancelled?  Will Danny sign autographs after the show? I figure, if Danny’s warming up, he can’t be having a M&G at the appointed time. We should be OK.  Others are not so convinced.  Finally, around 7:30 (I refused to look at the time because I hadn’t wanted to watch the clock after 7:10) the people needing assistance (wheel chairs, etc.) are let into the track seating.  But, hold it!  Why are there all those other people being let in at the other side of the grandstand?  They‘re  taking “our” front row seats?  I’ll explain why later….

The security guards finally  drop the ribbons and let us advance to the ticket takers.  I make my way through and then go into “General Admission Sprinting Mode“–fueled by Gokey Fever!  I always try to head for center of the venue (to avoid the speakers on the edges).  I see about six seats available in the 6^th or 7^th row!  Oh!  There’s four in the fourth  row!  After confirming they aren’t “reserved” I move my spread out clothing (used to save the seats for those following, LOL) up to the 4^th row.  And sigh a big sigh of relief.  Ok.  Now what about the M&G?  After chatting with my aisle mates, those of us with M&G line up on the edge of the designated spot of the grandstand.  Whew!! We’re in the right spot and there’s someone to take us to the M&G!

Meet and Greet

We wind around trucks and buses to the front of Danny’s bus.  Danny and Mike seem to recognize many of us and I’m sure relieved that they still able to fit the M&G in.   When it was my turn, I gave Danny a big hug and asked him to sign the picure of Ed, Danny and I from the Wheaton show.  He tells me it’s a great picture, I heartily agree and I tell him that Ed wasn’t able to make this trip.  Mike takes our picture and then I had an opportunity to ask an IheartDG question;  “How does he feel IWNSGB is doing on the charts?”  He told me that the he is happy with its steady climb–especially with all the “heavy hitters” in country music that have been releasing new songs in the last month.  We talked a little more about it, until Mike gave me the “hook” and I we hugged goodbye.

Before we left, I asked Mike if Toni and I could have a picture together with Danny, he said sure.  As we stood next to Danny a stampede ensued and Danny was surrounded by the iheartdg fans that remained.  We all huddled tightly around Danny so that everyone could be included in the group photo. Then we have to dash back to the concert to get our seats.

Concert

Danny’s band was already on stage when we arrived to our seats.  Soon Danny burst onto the stage to “Life on Ya”. Danny has such high energy and a strong voice that he really grabs the audience.  This was an enthusiastic crowd!  The venue was full.  (See Toni’s video that scans the grandstands and field seating!)  We knew it was sold out, but we learned later that it held 6000 attendees!  In chatting with my aisle mates, I learned  that this was the first concert that they had ever added the obstructed view seats on the right and left side of the stage.  (Big screens were hung so they could see).  The rest of the concert set was:  Be Somebody (my favorite)  then Get Away. In speaking between songs, Danny asked whether they were excited to see Lady A in a little while–great applause and cheering.  The he re-introduced himself and asked if anyone had seen him on American Idol? I swear, the cheers seemed louder to me!  He joked, oh, one or two of you, right?  Next he sang a beautiful version of IWNSGB, then I Still Believe—with the great audience participation, including the Jamaican parts. He closed his original songs with Crazy Not To and MMDAAM.

At this point, Danny encouraged anyone that wanted to come down to the front to dance for some classics.  He sang Trouble, Life is a Highway and Living on a Prayer.  Danny moved across the stage, climbed up on the railings on each side to sing to the audience in obstructed view area (you should have seen the camera flashes go off when he did that!) and danced his way into the hearts of many, many new fans.  While the videos seem to show some hoarseness in Danny’s voice, I honestly didn’t notice it.  I was too busy enjoying the energy of his performance and seeing how pumped up he was getting the crowd.  In looking around, I saw people moving to the music, smiling, singing and generally looking very happy to be at his amazing performance.

The Insider’s Info

Prior to the show starting, I said hi to the guy next to me and his wife.  He said he wasn’t a huge Lady A fan, but he knew some of their music.  I asked if he was familiar with Danny Gokey? Burt offered that his wife was a fan of Danny’s when he was on American Idol.  During “Trouble”, we joined the fans dancing at the front of the stage.  When we returned to our seats.  Burt told me that his cousin was the man that booked Lady A and Danny.  I asked him how they were able to get in early and get the front row seats?  He told me that it was a fair tradition to have local businesses “sponsor” seats and that employees would be rewarded with the early admission.  I wish I would have asked if they ever got to meet the artists…..

Autograph Session

As has become a tradition of Danny’s, he offered to meet and sign for fans after the show.  A big line had already formed when we got there.  A special treat was that Brandon, Jamie, Matt and Ivan also joined Danny at the signing tables!  This was my first time to meet Jamie and Matt.  They are just as sweet as the rest of the band.    So ends, another amazing Gokey Adventure!