Album review : GABE STILLMAN – What Happens Next?

March 4th, 2026 by petefeenstra

Gulf Coast Records [Release date : 27.03.26]

With an impressive CV which includes graduating from the Berklee School of Music, being a finalist at the 35^th Annual International Blues Challenge and a Gibson Guitar Award winner, you might be surprised to discover that Gabe Stillman is a surprisingly laid back blues artist in his mid 20’s.

That said, this is a soulful album is full of subtle grooves, gossamer band interplay, sinewy guitar lines and vocal phrasing that always aims to make an emotional connection with his story telling lyrics.

The fact that the album is overseen by Texas blues guitar giant and former Blacktop Records producer Anson Funderburgh, gives the 9 songs an additional purchase.

It’s surely no coincidence that Stillman’s biting and concise guitar work mirrors that of his producer, who always put feel at the heart of a song alongside economic playing with a soulful bent.

And yet, while the arrangements might owe something to Funderburgh’s studio presence, ‘What Happens Next?’ is very much Stillman’s own musical project.

It’s an album routed in the search for identity, as on the title track, while he’s in a more reflective mode on the emotionally charged ‘The Man I’m Supposed To Be’ – full of great band interplay on a slow blues.

Then he slips into soulful self reflection (no pun intended) on ‘Someone In My Mirror’, with an intuitive combination of organ and slide.

These are two examples of the understated nature of album full of subtle grooves, gossamer interplay, soulful vocal phrasing and solos that illuminate emotions and meanings.

It’s all there on the curiously languid, but beguiling mid-tempo title track opener, with a whiff of Van Morrison, or perhaps Connor Selby style funky white boy soul.

Then there the rhetorical title itself which appears as a gateway to his own artistic possibilities.

The following riff driven ‘Yesterday’s Donuts’ makes use of a stodgy metaphors: “My love has gone stale, so I’m a package in the resale, might be yesterday’s donuts, but I’m still sweeter than you.”

But as with the album as a whole, it’s his musical imperative that triumphs, in this case via a silky a smooth solo, (which I’m tempted to describe as sweet), as part of a sumptuous groove.

The more you delve into the album, the more it feels as if the grooves have led him to the lyrics.

‘Shame Shame’ for example, is a beefy band shuffle on which his tautly strung solo taps into the song title.

The subsequent scintillating ‘call and response’ guitar interplay between Stillman and Funderburgh is unfortunately robbed of a potentially thrilling resolution by a perfunctory ending.

The album as a whole is a smooth ride, but by the time of ’Screaming ‘ – essentially a vehicle for his impressive guitar playing – it starts to feel as if he’s running out of material.

That said, he does he does sandwich two covers with an Allman Brothers influenced ‘Living Your Life’, which features a big introductory organ and guitar sweep, though he struggles to make his voice the pivotal focus of the track.

He makes a good fist of Goffin/Goldberg’s ‘I’ve Got To Use My Imagination’, which he transforms into a Ray Manzarek (The Doors) style keyboard-led cool groove, complete with a funky break.

The closing cover of the John Hartford penned ‘Gentle On My Mind’, described by the author as a “word movie” and popularised by the likes of Glen Campbell and Dean Martin etc, is a splendid example of good sequencing.

The acoustic and slide infused lightness of touch fits the track perfectly, before the legendary Kaz Kazanoff adds some all too brief sax generated husk.

Stillman rises to the occasion with a fine vocal on a perfect book-end to an album that is closer to white boy soul than the blues, but is always crafted with care and real feel and deserves an extra star for its musical excellence. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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