Ray Fulcher

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, Rovi