Brandon Fulson

When Brandon Fulson writes and sings about the country, he’s talking about the real country. It’s not that teenage dream of pick-up trucks, beer and endless parties. It’s a place where “hillbilly heroin and alcohol,” snake handlers, two-bit grifters, hookers and people just generally making bad decisions are more likely to be neighbors as those happy-go-lucky characters who populate modern commercial country radio.

It’s a place where Fulson grew up and still lives. Fulson’s new album, “Dark Side of the Mountain,” should be an eye-opener for anyone who has never visited rural Tennessee and Kentucky. It’s not all dark. Fulson’s song are filled with humor and heart.

“I always felt like music should reflect where you’re from,” says Fulson. “"If it's about country people it should be about what they actually go through, not the stuff they say represents country music. The images on television don't match where I live.”

Fulson was raised in Middlesboro, Ky just across the border from the Cumberland Gqp where he now resides., and found his musical legs by performing country and rock covers in rowdy little bars in the area. Along the way, original songs began to slip into the mix alongside the Waylon Jennings and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

There’s nothing phony about Fulson. There’s no cowboy hat, no silly swagger and that accent? It’s real. Maybe it’s a little darker than you’re used to.

“It’s not that I want to glamorize the dark side,” says Fulson. “I just want to represent real life."