LAWRENCE ROTHMAN RETURNS WITH NEW ALBUM HERE LIES LOVE / SAWDUST TO STARDUST
Set For Release On September 25, 2026
First Single “The Meaning” Out Today
Credit: Mary Rozzi
NASHVILLE, TN. – (June 23, 2026) – Acclaimed singer-songwriter and producer Lawrence Rothman sets their new album, Here Lies Love / Sawdust to Stardust, for September 25 via KRO Records – presave/preorder HERE. Alongside the announcement, Rothman is debuting the album’s first single, “The Meaning” – listen/share HERE. The music video for the new track, directed by photographer and film director Floria Sigismondi, is also out today – watch HERE.
Here Lies Love / Sawdust to Stardust is Rothman’s fifth studio album and their most revealing work to date. Marking a full embrace of the Americana tradition, the album was written and recorded in Biarritz, France, and Nashville, Tennessee. Produced and mixed entirely by Rothman, the album features contributions from Madi Diaz, Amanda Shires, Katie Pruitt, Jason Isbell, Jillian Jaqueline and others. The project explores addiction, recovery, grief, identity, anxiety, lost love and the complicated act of surviving long enough to reinvent yourself, all while creating a vision of Americana defined not by genre conventions but by authenticity, songwriting craft and personal truth-telling.
“Sawdust is what’s left after the work. Stardust is what remains when survival becomes meaning.” Rothman says. “After twenty years as a singer, the voice itself becomes archaeological. This is the public reckoning between every version of myself that got buried along the way.”
“The Meaning”, the album’s first single off the record, is out today. Co-written with Madi Diaz, the track examines purpose, forgiveness and whether truth comes from somewhere divine or from wounds buried deep inside ourselves. Rothman shares, “The imagery of ‘the dirt is my heart beating’ is part of the theme of burial and rebirth that runs through the whole album. Dirt becomes both grave and soil… the place where old selves are buried, but also where new life begins.”
The music video was directed by Rothman’s wife and creative partner, Floria Sigismondi, who has directed all of Rothman’s videos, with credits including David Bowie, Rihanna and Brandi Carlile. “We shot in the stark expanse of Joshua Tree, where the absence of distraction creates space for contemplation—about mortality, love, faith and our search for purpose,” Sigismondi says. “The desert became a visual metaphor for that search: a place where you’re confronted with both your insignificance and your connection to something larger than yourself.”
Here Lies Love / Sawdust to Stardust completes a trilogy that began with Good Morning, America (2021) and continued with The Plow That Broke the Plains (2024) – three albums conceived as a single, continuous body of work. The series was born out of the pandemic period, when a collaboration with Lucinda Williams pulled Rothman back to their roots in Nashville. The project represents Rothman’s most cohesive creative statement to date.
LAWRENCE ROTHMAN – HERE LIES LOVE / SAWDUST TO STARDUST
1. The Meaning
2. A Word’s A Weapon
3. Karmakaze (feat. Amanda Shires)
4. Stable
5. Deep Cut
6. Demons
7. Here Lies Love
8. Worn Out Woman
9. A Fire Test (feat. Sarah Klang)
10. Nothing Like Shakespeare
11. Slow Rush
12. Lost In Her Rock n’ Roll
13. Sawdust To Stardust
Rothman is a singer-songwriter, producer and visual artist whose work has lived at the intersection of folk, rock, Americana and experimental pop for over two decades. Their acclaimed debut album, The Book of Law established Rothman as one of alternative music’s most singular voices. As a producer and collaborator, Rothman has worked with artists including Angel Olsen, Lucinda Williams, MUNA, Blondshell, Amanda Shires and Kim Gordon, helping shape records that transform personal vulnerability into powerful art, and drawing inspiration from those same artists in their own growth as a confessional songwriter.
Proceeds from “The Meaning” will be donated to The Trevor Project to support LGBTQ+ young people.
