Rooster Morris
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Rooster Morris (born September 16, 1955) is an American writer, musician and songwriter, the author of the Axle Galench children's book series and co-owner of Axle Publishing Company, Inc. and Laid-Back West, an educational materials distribution company. The first book in his series, Axle Galench and the Gate of No Return, was published in 2004. Morris released his second book, Axle Galench in Search of Barnsfoggon, in 2005, and has also recorded and performed the music for audio books for each release. Axle Galench and the Spin Lizard Rescue is currently in its final stages of editing and will be published sometime in 2008. Since 2004, Morris and his wife/business partner Jody Logsdon have sold a combined total of over 13,500 of his books and audio books in his self-publishing endeavors. He has performed for over 2.5 million children since the publication of his first book.[1][2][3][4] He was featured in the Texas Living section of Southern Living Magazine in January 2007.[5] Morris currently resides in Rockdale, Texas.
David Lee Morris was born in Ridgecrest, California, and soon acquired the nickname Rooster. He spent his childhood immersed in the cowboy life. At the age of five, he began riding horses and working cattle with his father on ranches in the tri-state area of Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Because he lived in remote places and had few friends his own age, Rooster invented a unique way of entertaining himself. He started mimicking bird calls and coyote howls, then began developing unusual voices. Many years later, the skills he taught himself would result in the recording of an audio book written by John R. Erickson, the author of the Hank the Cowdog books. Moonshiner's Gold contained seventeen people for which Morris did different voice characterizations.[6]
Musical background
Rooster's musical skills are self-taught as well. He began learning to play the fiddle when he was a teenager. By the time he graduated from high school, he was playing fiddle for the historic Western Cowpunchers Association that was established in the 1880s in Amarillo, Texas. He has since been recorded by the Smithsonian Institution playing old-time fiddle music (album title, Ridin' Old Paint),[7] recorded a CD of his original compositions (Picnic Tree), and taught himself how to play guitar, mandolin, and bass.