A LIAR'S PARADISE

Storytelling Festival promises diversity through unique tales

yin’ didn’t come natural to Dennis Gaines, but storytellin’ did. Which is how a cowboy became the biggest liar in Texas — and proud of it.

Dennis is a true cowboy, humble as he is humorous, with a marvelous talent for storytelling, writing poetry, and turning out cowboy songs. A native of the Texas Hill Country, he was a working ranch hand for 10 years, tending cattle, building fences, and entertaining people along the way. Somebody told him he should throw his lasso around “the writin’ and recitin’ business” and for the past 19 years, he’s been a professional storyteller. His rhymes are wicked; his rhythm even better. He’s the type of guy you’d see at trail drives, rodeos, horse shows, dude ranches and gunfights. (On the other hand, he says, he’s never been seen in the company of lawyers, politicians and other outlaws.)

That quick wit is what won him the title of Cowboy Storyteller and Humorist of the Year in 2000 from the Academy of Western Artists. His cowboy poetry, “Son-of-A-Gun Stew: A Texas Cowboy’s Gather,” won the Cowboy Poetry Album of the Year in 2004. Over the past two years, however, he’s added a new talent to his repertoire — lying — and he’s good at that, too. He won the State Liar’s Contest in George West, Texas, two years running and is currently ranked the best liar in the state.

Which is why Dennis Gaines, champion liar, plans to defend his lyin’ ways against other lyin’ rascals at the 2009 Texas Storytelling Festival in Denton. The Lone Star Liar’s Competition, now the “Best of the Best Liar’s Concert,” is one of the biggest attention-getters at the city’s spring storytelling extravaganza, now in its 24th year, offering everything from ghost tales and tall tales to Native American stories and Appalachian ballads. Story “concerts” by regional and local storytellers fill the four days, while national storytellers headline the evening events. There are workshops for teachers and master classes for practiced raconteurs as well as opportunities for new talent — the next “American Idols” of storytelling — to show their stuff. Texas Woman’s University is sponsoring the weekend event for the second year running, providing cover for attendees from the ever-variable Texas weather on March 26-29 throughout the day.

Featured storytellers this year include Dennis Gaines, Bernadette Nason, Sheila Kay Adams, Toni Simmons, Sunny Dooley and Michael Parent. Each brings a different story: Sheila comes from the Appalachian Mountains while Dennis comes from the cowboy culture. Bernadette is terribly British (despite living in Texas these days) while Toni is a champion of African American stories. Sunny keeps the Navajo culture alive in her stories while Parent dishes out stories about his Franco-American heritage.

The festival began in 1985 with the dream of one man, Finley Stewart, who wanted to strengthen and develop the tradition of storytelling in Denton and the region. His idea led to the creation of the nonprofit Tejas Storytelling Association, which carries on with the festival to this day. Oral storytelling may be the oldest form of entertainment for the human race, but because of technological advances, the tradition of handing down stories is dying out. As Dennis points out, “The printing press led to worldwide decline in oral storytelling.” Today, it fights with the instant gratification of text messages and cell phones. To encourage the culture of storytelling, the festival’s organizers specifically try to bring in grade school students and their teachers. The festival continues to grow, attracting thousands each year, despite economic problems that have hurt many arts organizations.

Over the years, the festival has brought in many storytellers, each with a different style. Sheila Kay Adams, one of this year’s featured guests, delivers humorous tales from the small mountain community in North Carolina where she lives. She learned stories and ballads by listening to her great aunt and cousin as a young girl. Seven generations have passed down English, Scottish and Irish ballads brought over by her family in the 1700s. She plays a five-string banjo, using an obscure technique called clawhammering to strum the instrument. Many of the storytellers, in fact, mix tales with their music. Author Tim Tingle, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, is known for telling heartfelt stories from his children’s books as well as his flute playing. Tingle provides direction for all the festival’s Native American concerts.

The festival has something to offer everyone. Young adults and teenagers flock to the opening night’s Ghost Tales, a two-hour concert that begins with frightful tales for the younger set, but grows progressively more hair-raising as the evening goes on. The Sacred Stories concert on Sunday, which focuses on the spiritual and on stories told from the heart, attracts families. Younger storytellers can steal the spotlight for a couple of hours by pairing up with a veteran storyteller for support and guidance. Over the course of the festival, they are featured in the “Best of the Best Youth Storytelling Concert.”

Entertainment and education go hand-in-hand at the festival. While the concerts seek to inspire and spark the imagination, the workshops cover the basics of storytelling as well as offering professional advice for librarians and teachers. Master classes, directed by different national storytellers each year, help fellow raconteurs polish and refine their talents — all in just two and a half hours. (This year, Sheila Kay Adams and Michael Parent are conducting the two classes.) There was a workshop last year on how storytelling techniques can be used in elementary and high school classrooms to help with state testing and another to help storytellers going into hospitals and prisons.

The most fun, of course, is “The Best of the Best Liar’s” concert, which gives contestants eight minutes to come up with a lie. There is no age limit. “I’m new to this lyin’ concept,” admits Dennis, who is entering the Denton competition for the first time. He says the difference between a good story and a bad story depends on the audience. “If the audience has no interest or understanding of what you’re talking about,” he says, “you may wind up with a bad story.” While a good storyteller may get applause, a great storyteller makes a personal connection with his audience, he notes. “It’s all in the ear of the listener.”

Dennis says that he often listens to other cowboys and ranch hands talk before he starts telling his own stories. The idea is to learn from the story and practice the concepts. Listening to other storytellers at events like the Texas Storytelling Festival is an effective way to learn good storytelling, he adds. Besides, it’s too good an opportunity. “A good storyteller isn’t going to pass up a good chance to talk to an audience,” he says, “even if it’s an audience of one.”

BY marie williams