Lawrence Rothman has built a trilogy around Americana, and he wants you to hear the whole thing as one ball. The singer-songwriter and producer dropped Here Lies Love / Sawdust to Stardust, his 13-track LP, on Friday via KRO Records. It follows 2024’s The Plow That Broke the Plains and closes out a trilogy that began with 2021’s Good Morning, America.
Rothman conceived the project shortly after moving to Nashville during the pandemic and connecting with the Americana scene. He sat on the patio of Brown’s Diner in Nashville, with Jeremy Ivey singing inside and playing over the patio speakers, to explain how it came together.
What Rothman Says About Americana
Rothman describes Americana as a melting pot of genres. “Americana, to me, in 2026, is everything that’s associated with great American music, all rolled into one ball,” he says. “It’s soul, R&B, singer-songwriter, folk, country, rock. You even got a little bit of punk rock. For me, it’s the place to identify with the way that I create.”
He has spent years in these spaces, producing for Amanda Shires and Maggie Rose along with his own work. The new album reflects that immersion.
Trilogies and Miller
Rothman’s love of trilogies traces back to Henry Miller, one of his favorite writers. Miller’s Rosy Crucifixion trilogy — Sexus, Plexus, and Nexus — was the first meaty thing Rothman ever read as a teen, around age 17.
“I was maybe 17, and it was 400, 500 pages, and I loved it. I was obsessed,” Rothman recalls. “After that, once I became a songwriter and had a record deal and all that, I thought, ‘One day, I want to make a series of records just like how Henry Miller did that.'”
That impulse drove the trilogy’s shape. Each album carries threads that connect back to the others, with repeat collaborators holding it together.
The Songs That Bind It
The trilogy has a clear anchor: Amanda Shires. Her presence on “Thrash the West” ties the project together.
In 2021, Rothman and Shires sang “Thrash the West” on Good Morning, America. It was an outlet for Rothman’s anxiety and bouts with depression, with lines like “karma came and bit us in the ass.” For the new album, Rothman wrote “Karmakaze” with Jillian Jaqueline.
“I didn’t know Amanda when I wrote ‘Thrash the West,'” Rothman says. “That was our first meeting together, and we really hit it off as friends and collaborators. I had ‘Karmakaze’ floating around for a while, and actually at one point wanted to present it to her so she could make it her own. But I held onto it and finished it for this record. I had a verse, and it was called ‘Kamikaze’ but I eventually figured out that I was writing about karma.”
By the time they finished, the song became the second half of “Thrash the West.”
The Video and the Desert
This summer, Rothman dropped a video for “Karmakaze,” directed by his wife and creative partner, Floria Sigismondi. The clip shows Rothman playing the song against a desolate, rock-walled backdrop set in the desert.
“We’re going down like a karmakaze, still alive but the odds against me,” he sings against a strings-and-percussion melody that the album returns to time and again. The visual drives home the lonely angst in his voice.
Live Shows As The Point
Rothman will spend most of September and October touring off the album, hitting clubs and rock rooms such as Groove in New York City and Chief’s on Broadway in Nashville. Playing live is the biggest motivation in his career, he says.
“I started my career in a punk band,” Rothman says. “We would burn effigies of George Bush onstage, then get kicked off the stage or off the tour. We were making statements about how you felt about how the country is run, and then you’d get censored. Now, you can say anything, but the threat is, we are really deep now into zeros and ones.”
“Now is the biggest time in human history for artists to perform live, with their hands on a microphone,” he continues. “Seeing the human touch and visually watching it — that’s the most important influence that we can be as artists on a younger generation to not get locked up in those zeroes and ones.”
Who Worked On It
Rothman’s collaborators on the album include:
- Madi Diaz
- Katie Pruitt
- Amanda Shires
Their contributions span songwriting, production and performance across the project.
The Album’s Run Order
| Track | Position |
|---|---|
| Here Lies Love / Sawdust to Stardust | Full LP |
The album runs 13 tracks, and Rothman has described it as a natural sequel to The Plow That Broke the Plains, confronting generational trauma, self-destruction, and existing in a politically-charged, AI-dominated era from which music provides little respite.
The Road Ahead
Rothman’s schedule is packed through the fall. The tour stops include Groove in New York City and Chief’s on Broadway in Nashville.
The trilogy is complete, and Rothman has made his case for why Americana holds together as one ball.
See the video the story is built around at Rolling Stone.
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