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Like many country singers,
Ray Fulcher started his career as a professional songwriter. After he racked up hits for
Luke Combs in 2016, he concentrated on his career as a singer, releasing the EP Somebody Like Me in 2019. As a performer,
Fulcher is brighter, sweeter than
Combs, with just a slight pop bent that is kept in check by the singer/songwriter's debt to the lean, funky sound of
Eric Church.
A native of east Georgia who was raised in the small town of Harlem,
Ray Fulcher was initially drawn to the hard country of
George Strait,
Johnny Cash,
Alan Jackson, and
Keith Whitley. While he was attending the University of Georgia as an Education major, he fell for modern country acts, including
Eric Church,
Luke Bryan, and
the Zac Brown Band.
A 2005 concert by
Church in Athens, Georgia served as the inspiration for
Fulcher to learn how to play guitar at the age of 21. Soon,
Fulcher began writing his own songs and playing in a band called County Line. After releasing a solo debut EP, Turn It Up, in 2013,
Fulcher moved to Nashville in 2014, inking a deal with River House Artists not much later. The wiry, twangy single "That's My Thinkin'" also arrived in 2014, with "Song of the Summer" coming in 2015.
A second EP, Here We Go Again, appeared in 2016, but
Fulcher's big break that year came when he co-wrote eight of the twelve songs on
Luke Combs' debut,
This One's for You. Among those tunes was the number one single "When It Rains It Pours," which helped kickstart
Fulcher's performing career.
Fulcher pushed ahead after
Combs became a star. "Anything Like You Dance" was the first single leading to the May release of
Fulcher's EP Somebody Like Me. That year,
Fulcher continued his connection to
Combs, writing three songs for the star's EP The Prequel and serving as the opening act on
Combs' summer tour. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine