Danny Gokey finally gets a record deal

Although it took until September, Danny Gokey has finally revealed to the public that he will in fact be recording an album - a country one at that - thanks to his signing with 19/RCA Nashville.

In a story by Brian Mansfield that appeared earlier today on USAToday.com, the exciting news was reported in a manner that raised some points that are worth reiterating. Firstly, Mansfield said this the first time labels under the Sony-BMG umbrella have signed all Top 4 finalists. This is technically not true, considering the Top 4 from Idol's first season all had deals with labels within the Sony-BMG family, with Kelly Clarkson, Justin Guarini and Nikki McKibbin being signed with RCA and Tamyra Gray signed with Simon Fuller's 19 Records. Putting this aside, it is amazing to think that Idol's fifth season, which is often used as the gold standard, had only three of the Top 4 finalists signed to an Idol-related label (Chris Daughtry, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee), so this is a big feat for Danny, Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert.

Secondly, the fact that Danny performed songs of the country genre only three times over the course of his run on Idol is enough to raise a few eyebrows. He always seemed more like an Elliott Yamin-like R&B crooner, but he has been getting good feedback for his Rascal Flatts tunes on the tour, so maybe things won't be too weird. Plus it does not hurt that fans of country music are loyal album purchasers, just ask Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington.

As for the release date, that should not be of too much concern. It would be ridiculous if Danny were to record an album - a country album mind you - in about a week in order to have it out in time for the holiday shopping season, but it has been done before (just ask Kristy Lee Cook).

Regardless of how each of the eighth season's Top 4 members' albums fare, it is a healthy signal that the four of them have been snagged by labels under jurisdiction of Sony-BMG. Hopefully they're high on quality and short on gimmicks.