12 January 22 - 28, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Toning Up We asked some of North Texas’ best guitarists who they think has captured the best guitar tones in the local music scene. BY JASON JANIK B ecoming a great guitarist isn’t easy. There’s a reason your un- cle has his dusty Epiphone tucked away in his closet, un- touched for the last 20 years. That first step in mastering the six-string — just acquiring a guitar — isn’t hard at all. A visit to any pawn shop checks that off the list. But, there’s also “thousands of hours of practice,” the notion of “cultivating your ar- tistic nature,” and the endless cycle of gear acquisition because this new one goes to 11. Many guitarists will tell you about the elu- sive creature, a mixture of science and magic, called “tone.” Like Excalibur’s sword, the perfect guitar tone can be a mythical beast, filled with the power to elevate mere notes into immortal messages from another realm. North Texas is filled with musicians who’ve conquered this mysterious, mighty mountain. They’ve scaled the peak of Mount Tone and returned with their own signature sound. With such skill in arm’s reach around here, we recently asked several renowned guitarists in the area who they most admire for their tone. Dialed Up K en Bethea is a man who has long since figured out tone, giving the Old 97’s a signature sound that has placed them at the forefront of the Ameri- cana scene and helped earn the band nu- merous awards over the last 30 years. Bethea’s sound has remained consis- tent across several decades, yet it still seems fresh and new, often as if it’s being heard for the first time. He admires the tone that Brent Best of Denton’s Slobberbone has mastered since the ’90s. “From the beginning, Brent Best chose a dark, chunky, ’70s guitar style to make his songs of pain, drink and death come alive,” Bethea says. “To appreciate how killer his rhythm/lead guitar playing is, you must un- derstand he is also the singer and the lyricist of the band. “When he and his band first appeared on the scene in the ’90s, classic rock guitar was decidedly uncool. Sonically, Brent’s magic was combining his rough, twangy vocals with raw, distorted guitar. It felt both nostal- gic and fresh at the same time. Imagine if the Youngs, Angus and Neil, had started a band in Denton with zombie Ronnie Van Zandt.” Clark Vogeler has the job that most gui- tarists can only dream of. As Toadies’ lead guitarist, Vogeler delivers a swelling sound that’s both crunchy and piercing at the same time. Even his previous band, Funland, had North Texans going wild. “Since a guitar player’s tone is really just the way the air vibrates from a speaker, it can be quite a subjective thing,” he tells us. “What I appreciate is when a player’s sound is a true expression of that person, their tastes, their playing and even their personality.” Still, Vogeler has a handful of guitarists in mind when recalling tones that have gripped him over the years. “It would be easy to point out Matt Kadane (Bedhead, The New Year) and the understated tone that emanates from his vintage Fender Mustang and Princeton amp, which conjures such beauty, especially when it points counter to and wraps around his brother’s expressive playing; or the twang and spank of Jim Heath’s (Reverend Horton Heat) rockabilly/punk sound.” The Fort Worth rock pillar says it’s the distinctive sound by fellow North Texan Mike Graff of metal band Course of Empire that stands atop his list, though. “But, in my book, the most singular and evocative guitar tone belongs to Mike Graff, who coaxes some of the most flavorful and compelling sounds from his hollow body gui- tar (often his father’s Gretsch) and pair of amps with one ever so slightly delayed, which invokes a distinctive wall of sound,” Voegel tells us. “His tone, paired with the emotional pull of the notes and chords he chooses to play and the dexterity and intensity with which he plays them, makes him one of Texas’ most in- teresting and unique guitar players.” Dallas’ Leah Lane of Rosegarden Funeral Party is the current torchbearer for what bands like The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees started, before it got co-opted by Hot Topic. Though she’s often thought of as a killer lead vocalist, her guitar work is sec- ond to none. Able to create a dense, foggy and ethereal environment for her vocals to frolic, Lane’s tone is equal parts Lon Chaney and Greta Garbo. “My favorite Dallas guitar player is Scott White,” Lane says. “And I say that not be- cause he and I have a project called Deep Red together, but rather, we have a project together because he is my favorite guitarist.” The Rosegarden Funeral Party front- woman says White’s ability to balance his own fingerprint with sonic adaptability makes him a cavalier collaborator. “Scott is a tone seeker, always referencing the sounds he falls in love with from his influ- ences, but always putting his own spin on them to amplify them and to make them uniquely his,” Lane says of her bandmate. “Scott can play whatever you need him to play, no matter the genre. He listens and sup- ports the songs, rather than trying to take center stage all the time, but when it is time to take center stage, he shines. He has a humility to the music. and I think that is both rare and absolutely invaluable in a player.” There’s not much that can be said about Chris Holt that isn’t already known — he’s a guitarist for The Eagles, after all. Don Henley doesn’t ask you to join his band unless you understand the importance of tone. And that’s before even mentioning the mile-long list of North Texas bands that Holt has either been a member of or played on their album. “Some of my very favorite players ever came from our neck of the woods: Sam Swank, Kenny Withrow, Mark Lettieri, Andy Timmons, Michael Richardson, Eric Neal. ... I could go on and on,” Holt tells us. Holt’s favorite tonal memory comes courtesy of Garland’s Annie Clark, also known as St. Vincent. “If I had to pick one moment that just slays me every time I hear it, it’s the gnarly, off-the- rails, angular dissonance that Annie Clark throws down in ‘Birth In Reverse,’” he says. “Lurching, robotic, fuzzy madness. Chaotic but completely focused. That song perfectly encapsulates everything that I love about her playing and her tone — completely unpre- dictable, nothing ‘stock’ about it.” Much like the rest of us, he’s in awe of Clark’s forward-thinking approach to classic sounds. Miguel Correa Above: Rosegarden Funeral Party’s Leah Lane. Left: J. Isaiah Evans of The 40-Acre Mule fused blues and country backed by the Boss Tweed. ▼ Music Mike Brooks
