Lawrence Rothman, Fluid in Genre and Gender, Is Reshaping the Americana Sound

Nashville might be the place where Lawrence Rothman first cut their teeth as an artist, but it took the continued rise of Americana and emo country for them to fall in love with the city.

“I kind of bring Nashville together with all the music that's happening next to the Americana sound right now — and I include Zach Bryan — with raw songwriting and lyrics coming first,” says Rothman. Rolling rock.

“That's an MO for me. Nashville had fallen off my radar until I came back here in 2020 and started turning to a lot of these artists. I realized that this is what I was missing. I was looking for music that puts the lyrics first like that.”

Rothman speaks broadly, but they also speak of The plow that broke the plains, the 13-track studio album released this spring. At a dive bar in East Nashville ahead of a mid-May album release show at the Basement, Rothman is eager to demonstrate a rekindled love of Music City's indie side.

Away from the microphone, Rothman has a steadily growing influence on Americana. They have produced, co-written or performed with Margo Price, Katie Pruitt, Amanda Shires and Angel Olsen, among others. At the Basement show, Shires joined Rothman on stage for the opening song, “LAX”, to which Shires also contributed vocals. The plow that broke the plains. Rothman called Shires “my best friend,” at the end of the song. “Yes! I have one!” Shires responded, before exiting the stage and into the crowd for the rest of the set.

Rothman then started “Poster Child,” which he co-wrote with Jason Isbell about a 2004 incident in which Rothman was attacked outside a Texas club after a show.

Rothman has identified as gender fluid most of his life and prefers to play with makeup and flashy, punk-rock clothes. In Texas in the early 2000s, such a show carried a certain risk for artists.

“This was the height of the Bush presidency,” they say. “Look, I don't like to be too preachy on stage, but I had a story — not in Texas — of taking a picture of George W. Bush and taking out a gun-shaped lighter and burning it on stage. Now, I didn't do it there, but I think word got around that I had done it before. And they didn't like the way I was dressed.

“After the show, I was standing in an alley and three guys jumped me and shot me and broke my ribs,” they continue. “It was quite traumatic. You hear about these attacks happening, but it's only when it happens to you that you really feel the pain that someone is going through.”

Early in the writing process what happened The plow that broke the plains, Isbell hosted Rothman for a songwriting session, and Rothman said they wanted this record to encapsulate the journey of their musical careers. Isbell suggested they start over, and Rothman began telling stories. The second was about the attack. Both artists played guitar while turning the terrifying tale into song. Rothman, who began learning guitar at age 8, says they had long since fallen in love with the instrument until that session with Isbell.

“I felt like I was back in my parents' basement. I had a comfortable feeling, like we were two kids from Middle America, now grown up, writing together like we were back in that basement,” they say. “It just made me want to go there with that song.”

The plow that broke the plains It was largely recorded in Nashville at Sound Emporium studios. A pair of songs on the record, “LAX” and “Drug Store Bummin',” stemmed from an incident near the end of recording in which Rothman took several over-the-counter pills and landed in the emergency room. They flew back to Los Angeles to recuperate. “I found myself going to Walgreens a lot, and I bought a bunch of shit that I probably didn't need, and then I started putting that shit in my body,” Rothman told fans during the Basement concert.

After making “LAX” on the flight back to Los Angeles, Rothman decided to add one more track to the album. “R Blood” is an overtly political number that screams “the American dream turned American terror” over a mix of country and R&B tunes. Rothman recruited SG Goodman to perform it as a duet The plow that broke the plains.

“I was reading an article about the storm we're about to get into, with the election, and it got me thinking,” says Rothman. “I haven't written a politically driven song in years, but I thought about it. Then I went to Sunset Sound and cut it. I thought, “Man, if I'm going to do this, I want someone with me that I love and that has the same morals as me.” Well, that's SG”

Rothman, 42, grew up in St. Louis, extremely familiar with the city's hip-hop scene, but that wasn't the only influence. Their father was a rock DJ and lover of oldies and country music. When a young Rothman discovered MTV during the grunge era, they were hooked: “That's when I knew it was something I wanted to do.” Their father took them to Nashville at the age of 14, and Rothman cut their first professional recordings in the city. Despite living in Los Angeles, they say they find solace in Nashville (away from Music Row) working with other progressive musicians.

“I think, for a while, Nashville was very comfortable in its process, and I think there was a laziness to it,” Rothman says. “Then, people like it [producer] Dave Cobb and some of these other producers started to open the door to where we didn't have to be so comfortable. We could try other avenues. At the same time, the Americana scene—the East Nashville scene—has become much more welcoming of diversity. This is the key to good music. If it's all just the same type of person, you're going to have the same type of sound.”

Their Basement gig was early, meaning Rothman had just an hour to play and clear the stage before the venue's late show. When the whirlwind of a concert was over, they left with a message of appreciation to the local crowd.

“I love each and every one of you,” Rothman said. “Never forget that Nashville is the best place on earth, and I fucking mean it!”

Josh Kratsmer is a journalist and author whose third book, Red Dirt Unpluggedis scheduled for release on December 13, 2024, via Back Lounge Publishing.