Longtime Dallas cultural figure and music historian Jeffrey Liles invites you to help write his script this Satuday—literally. In a one-night-only storytelling performance, Liles will respond live to audience-submitted prompts, diving deep into his decades of experiences in the music world, both in Dallas and beyond.
At Storytellers at The Kessler: Cottonmouth, guests will be asked to jot down one topic—maybe a band, venue, genre, record store, anything—and those prompts will be handed off to journalist and moderator Robert Wilonsky, who will help guide the evening’s narrative in loose chronological order.
“The audience will feel like part of the show,” Liles said in a phone interview. “They’re contributing to what we’re talking about. It’s not just me reading a script. I’m really excited about it.”
Born in 1962, Liles says he was “born at exactly the right time.” He caught the Beatles as a kid, was surrounded by Zeppelin in high school, and found himself in the middle of every major musical wave that followed—from punk to hip-hop to the golden years of Deep Ellum.
As a DJ at KNON in the ’80s, he helped usher rap onto Dallas radio, when only a handful of U.S. stations dared to. “It was still underground,” he recalls. “There were only three cities in the country playing it on the air—New York, LA, and us.”
The show isn’t just about nostalgia—it’s about mapping the city’s shifting cultural centers: from Lower Greenville to Northwest Highway to Deep Ellum and now, Oak Cliff. And it’s about the people behind the scenes. “It’s broader than the other Cottonmouth, Texas shows I’ve done,” Liles says. “It’s not just about one scene—it’s about artists who came through town, different personalities, writers, photographers, all of it.”
Liles and moderator Wilonsky have known each other for more than 35 years, having crossed paths countless times in the trenches of Dallas music and media, sharing a remarkably similar trajectory. “He was standing right next to me at the Nirvana Trees show,” Liles recalls. “When I moved to L.A., he did too.”
Their shared history gives the evening an added layer of depth, as Wilonsky jumps in with personal anecdotes and context that complement Liles’ stories—a dynamic Liles likens to a “double dose of history.”
There are no official plans to record the show, though attendees are welcome to bring their own cameras or recorders. “People always tell me to write a book,” Liles says. “I just don’t wanna do that. Doing a show like this is more spontaneous and inspired.”
Tickets available at thekessler.org
Fun Fact: Jeffrey Liles has performed and released spoken word albums under the name Cottonmouth, Texas, often backed by Los Angeles experimental rock band The Spores. That moniker lives on in the title of this special event—“Storytellers at The Kessler: Cottonmouth”—as a nod to his past work blending narrative, music, and performance.
Jessica Waffles is a freelance photographer/videographer and regular contributor to KXT. Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
