RVSHVD's debut album highlights a rural country artist defining his voice via his culture

Imagine if Clint Johnson, a humble and thoughtful 25-year-old Willacoochee, Georgia, native, had successfully pursued a degree in music journalism at nearby Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

A life where he is humbly making ends meet, recently married, and writing songs in a new home as a hobby with his wife would feel ideal.

However, Johnson is also known as country performer RVSHVD.

Thus, for as much as that earlier statement is all based in truth, he's also averaging 100,000 views per post via TikTok over the past six months, plus he has spent the last year sharing concert and festival stages worldwide with the likes of fellow Georgia natives Blanco Brown and Luke Bryan and breakout stars like Flatland Cavalry, Wyatt Flores and the Red Clay Strays. November 2023 saw him make his Grand Ole Opry debut.

His debut album, "It's Rashad," was released in September.

It's a showcase of his maturation.

'It's Rashad'

The performer's evolution into a confident singer-songwriter has been noteworthy since he signed with The Penthouse South/Sumarian Records/Virgin Music.

That has merged with who he organically is as a lover of the same types of outlaw country, trap-ready, hip-hop and mainstreamed alternative rock that inspired mid-2000s country hitmakers like Jason Aldean, Zac Brown, Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley and Keith Urban.

He credits a tireless work ethic and his songwriting and vocal chops' ability to evolve him from an artist comfortable performing country covers of hip-hop hits to developing singles like "Dirt Road," "Cottonmouth" and "Small Town Talk" as key in creating a fanbase that appreciates the Venn diagram space between country, hip-hop and rock that fostered his initial musical interests.

Album opener "The 9" is an ode to his southeastern Georgia roots in the 912 area code that includes cities populated by roughly 50,000 people or less, including Brunswick, Savannah, Valdosta, and Statesboro.

"I grew up with the hustlers, taught me to get it on my own / Don't you cross 'em unless you don't plan on goin' back home / You should know how it goes down on this side of the map / Ain't no use in phones you won't get no signal where I'm at / I like a backroad, a honeyhole / A cooler full of ice cold and a girl with a-- I can hold / Spent my life in these pines, damn right I'm repping 'bout mine /If you wanna know more 'bout my side, I'd be obliged," sing-raps RVSHVD.

Turn back the clock to Aldean's 2010 hit "Dirt Road Anthem" and find the roots of the song's appealing grit and power.

Banjos and strings also color a soulful southern coming-of-age tale in "Down by the River," while trap's 808s underpin the angrily heartbroken "Couldn't Be Me" and "Wild Wild West.

Authentic to RVSHVD's roots, the album also runs the gamut of hard grooves. Thus, including veteran Houston rap legend Paul Wall on "Hunnids in a Honky Tonk" and metal group All That Remains on "Proof" feels like a truly comfortable fit.

Uniquely developing his art and craft

"There are 1,200 people in Willacoochee, so I wasn't going to find many music mentors there — especially ones that looked like me," the performing artist tells The Tennessean.

Curious about that process as well is that Willacoochee is such a small town that it wasn't until just over a decade ago that RVSHVD was made aware of who Hootie and the Blowfish's double-diamond album selling lead singer and 10-time country chart-topping performer Darius Rucker was.

It's also the type of community where recording studios are not prevalent.

Thus, RVSHVD laughs hard when describing how he cut his initial "records."

Via YouTube video tutorials, he arrived at a convoluted process where he would download instrumentals onto a computer in his high school's library and then burn them to a blank compact disc. From there, he'd take the CD home and record himself rapping to the CD played from a DVD player as an audio file blasting through his television set's speakers. Using a recording-enabled MP3 player with headphones plugged in, he would rap or sing into his left headphone as a microphone while his right was next to his television speaker.

Remaining simultaneously country-defined but country-adjacent in his creativity has allowed RVSHVD to create a style that operates like he's consistently welcoming listeners into the genre through a swinging saloon door.

His sound broadly welcomes traditional country fans into more beat-driven sounds while offering those who typically listen to pop and urban radio a sound that confidently expands into rap and rock influences.

His church-based roots also motivate him. For the duration of his career, they've created a battle between sacred and secular motivations.

"My mother always tells me that if I can't (use my talents for God), then I can't use them at all," RVSHVD notes.

On "Hunnids in a Honkytonk," RVSHVD sadly disobeys his mother's wishes.

"I told my sister that my mother was never allowed to hear that song."

'I'd much rather let my music talk for me'

Twenty minutes into the conversation with The Tennessean, RVSHVD pauses and bluntly says: "I suck at talking. I ain't the biggest talker."

It's not so much a statement of his exhaustion with the conversation; it is an acknowledgment that he finds making music a much more efficient way to convey messages.

"I'd much rather let my music talk for me," he adds.

That ultimately leads to him passionately describing his debut album and any forthcoming long-form releases as the most complete thought, person-to-person, you're likely, as a fan, to ever receive directly from him.

"My fans deserve a collection of songs that allows them to get to know and relate to me better," he says. "As much as it makes my day when my fans like (the singles I have released), having all these sounds on the same project lets people know what I can and like to do."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville-signed RVSHVD releases his debut album, 'It's Rashad'