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All Contents © 2009 Robert Morgan Fisher. All Rights Reserved. No part of this Web site may be reproduced without express written permission, except for review purposes. Photo by Audie England.
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Purchase Robert's music on
CDBaby
Now on CD or MP3 format!
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Robert's longtime neo-narrative songwriting partner, Darryl Purpose, has released a live performace DVD/CD, "Live at Coalesce," which includes many classic Fisher/Purpose cowrites and some new material as well, all accompanied by the amazing Julie Beaver. For more information, click on the image below.
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Robert's short fiction is featured in Bluerailroad, an online magazine of the arts. Each story has a "companion song" link. Look in the table of contents (alongside Peter Case's Blog, poetry by John Doe and in-depth interviews with major musical figures). He's in the Switchyard section.
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 Visit "Robert Morgan Fisher Stories & Songs" on Facebook. Short Fiction and Neo-Narrative Song Content posted daily. Robert Morgan Fisher songs and CD's available there for download. Check it out and give him a "Like."
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Robert Morgan Fisher was born in Austin, Texas. His father was a Naval Flight Officer, so the Fisher family spent time in California, Washington State, Ohio, Virginia and Florida. Robert returned to The University of Texas at Austin where he began performing music in bars and coffeehouses. He soon migrated to Los Angeles where he put his Radio, T.V. and Film Degree to work in various jobs including executive/production assistant, announcer and, finally, as a writer of fiction, music, comedy and screenplays. His creative training includes two years of study with The Groundlings, three years as a performer with the improvised soap opera, Specific Hospital, and he is a lifetime alum of the Writers Boot Camp Think Tank. "I like to think I have one foot firmly in fiction, the other in screenwriting and my heart in music."
THE WRITING
Since coming to Los Angeles in the late 1980's, Fisher has written for radio, TV and film. In 1995, Robert composed and performed the music for Tony Guzman's contemporary retelling of the Marquis de Sade's Philosophy in the Bedroom. He then spent several years working for Premiere Radio Networks as a staff writer/producer/actor on numerous nationally-syndicated radio comedy shows. Fisher left Premiere in 2001, soon after the company was absorbed by Clear Channel. Robert also wrote for a couple of short-lived television shows (The Watcher and Red Handed, both on UPN) as well as "script-doctoring a movie that never got made." In 1999, he was one of 14 people selected to participate in the ill-fated Paramount Sitcom Apprentice Writers Program. "The Program resulted in zero people getting staffed," he recalls, "but it did motivate me to write the novel and screenplay for Minor Weiss." For the past several years, Robert has worked with the Santa Monica-based Writers Boot Camp in both an administrative and creative capacity.
His award-winning fiction has been published in national journals, including The Snake Nation Review, Spindrift, Shaking Like a Mountain, The Seattle Review, Bluerailroad and Caffeine. In April of 2010, Robert's fiction was honored by the City of Los Angeles as part of The New Short Fiction Series, LA's longest-running spoken-word event. (Past NSFS honorees include Ray Bradbury, Aimee Bender and Tatjana Soli.) Noteworthy actors read four of Robert's short stories aloud in a sold-out produced reading. Throughout the 1990s, his work was recognized in numerous writing competitions. However, in January of 2000, Robert's first novel, Set The Poem Free (now titled: When I Was a Hero) Placed 2nd in the PublishingOnline North American Fiction Open and the screenplay adaptation took first place in the Washington State Film Office Competition. His second novel, Minor Weiss, took the prestigious 2002 New Century Writer Award for best unpublished novel and was optioned by Atomium Pictures. Both Minor Weiss and When I Was a Hero remain unpublished. In 2008, he finished a third novel titled (That's What I Want). Robert has also written two thematically-linked collections of short fiction: You Stay Here and Cabaret Nation. He also has several movies in development including the comedy My Middle Earth Crisis, which he co-wrote with Jason Glassman and recently sold to TMNT Productions at Paramount and he is adapting Clay Eals 800+ page biography of Folk Music icon Steve Goodman (Steve Goodman: Facing the Music) for the big screen.
THE MUSIC
In the summer of 2005, Robert released Built Myself a Greenhouse on his own Imperative Records label. The 14-song CD was co-produced by Chad Watson and features guest performances by: David Arkenstone, Ned Beatty, Delaney Bramlett, Rosemary Butler, Albert Lee, John McEuen, Augie Meyers, John Molo, Vern Monnett, Chris Montez, Mickey Raphael, Don Randi, Jimmy Raschel, Sky Saxon, Daryl S, Chris Spedding, Brad Swanson and Ethan Wiley. The title cut, "Greenhouse," showcases the neo-narrative style for which Robert is well-known, as does "A Life in Music," "Numbah One Boom-Boom," "That's Why They Call it a Shot" and the poignant anthem for childless couples, "Question of Family," delivered as a duet with Rosemary Butler, famous for her vocal work backing up (among others) Jackson Browne and Neil Diamond. "A Life In Music" from this album was a top-5 finalist for the 2005 VH-1 Song of the Year in the Folk Category.
In 1996, Robert released the critically-acclaimed CD, Follow A Hunch, also on his own Imperative Records label and also co-produced by Chad Watson. Other artists have taken note of Robert's narrative songwriting skills. He's collaborated on songs with the late Dr. Timothy Leary and internationally-known neo-narrative singer/songwriter Darryl Purpose. "The songs I've written with Robert are all home runs," says Purpose, "I close my shows with them." Fisher/Purpose co-writes include: "Ring On My Hand," "Traveler's Code," "Dangerous Game," "Late For Dinner," "Granted," "Oughta Be A Highway," "You Must Go Home For Christmas" and many others. Their most famous co-write is probably "Mr. Schwinn" -- winner of no less than three major songwriting festivals and now a contemporary folk classic.
Robert has also served as the occasional Music Director of Second City's Totally Looped. Featuring such improv/comedy luminaries as Dan Castellaneta (The Simpsons), Laraine Newman (Saturday Night Live), Rick Overton (standup superstar) and Gail Matthius (Saturday Night Live), Totally Looped "dubs" dialogue into classic movie clips.
In 2006, two of Robert's songs "We'll Buy a Flag" and "Jester King" went to #1 on the Neil Young Living With War -- Songs of The Times chart - beating out several thousand other songs. Robert's "Angel Within" was selected by Narrative Music Canada as the Self-Discovery - 1st Place Lyric of International Narrative Song Competition 2006. The INSC is the biggest competition for narrative (storytelling) songs in the world. The lyric category in which "Angel Within" took first place is the Self Discovery Category -- i.e. songs about a character's journey of self-discovery. "Angel Within" is a new song and will be on Robert's next CD of original material. For now, the best way to hear the song is in live performance (see NEWS and GIGS).
Robert Morgan Fisher currently resides in Los Angeles. He and his wife, Rebecca, have two sons, Grant and Logan.
NOTE: Robert Morgan Fisher's younger sister, Laura Fisher Kaiser, is also a writer. She co-authored "Weddings for Dummies" and "The Official eBay Guide" and currently writes a regular feature column for The Washington Post.
©2010 Robert Morgan Fisher
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