Eric Rykal

The Gentle Guest is Eric Rykal and friends. Their music is bottled in Eau Claire, WI, for the most part, near the Chippewa River in the living room of a little blue house. Their sound can be found somewhere between the Great Depression and 2008.

After the release of The Gentle Guest's first EP no less than a year ago, and six-months of stagnant creativity, Rykal, the individual, instigator, and inspiration behind the project, spent a night in an empty bar in St. Paul, MN, witnessed a performance by a wayward Portland band, became inspired, and suddenly felt the need to write this album.

We Are Bound To Save Some Souls Tonight is the band's debut full-length and was written by Rykal on a rainy weekend, this past April; it was recorded during the first few weeks of summer with the help of a slew of Amble Down regulars, and has been performed all over town and throughout the region since its conception. The album's ten tracks give off an Americana feel with a bit of rustic blues mixed in, all containing the folklore of overridden hobo tales in their story-telling and theatrical lyrics.