Danny Gokey Signed to Aristna Nashville

Is he really going Country? Didn't see that coming. American Idol’s bespectacled third-place finisher, Danny Gokey, has cut a record deal with 19 Recordings/RCA Nashville, marking the first time in the show’s history that Idol’s recording arm has signed the entire final four.

Contracts for winner Kris Allen, runner-up Adam Lambert and fourth-place finisher Allison Iraheta were announced in June.

“We absolutely love Danny,” says Sony Music Nashville chairman Joe Galante, who praises the “soulful edge” in the 29-year-old singer’s gravelly voice. “We haven’t had anybody like that (in country) since Ronnie Milsap or T. Graham Brown.”

Though no producer is attached to Gokey’s album yet, he’ll go into a Nashville studio shortly after the Idols Live tour ends September 15th. Galante expects a single in late fall and an album to follow, most likely in March 2010.- USA Today