Ivy Hill Weekly: Jules Leyhe

Ivy Hill Entertainment is a music production company based in Oakland, California, that provides entertainment for all kinds of events, ranging from weddings to country themed parties at Google HQ, in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as Los Angeles. The company is run largely by Bay Area musician Brian Bergeron, as well as the Matches’ guitarist Jon Devoto, and musicians Matt Roads from the Bay and Zen Zenith from LA.

Can you catch a Lindsay in there? My one second of fame. (But I say that too often, don’t I?)

The company recently acquired an intimate small venue space of their own, shared with a local music therapist in Berkeley, CA. They put on events on Thursday nights to celebrate their musicians.

I made it out the other night to catch my friend and badass blues guitarist Jules Leyhe. He was really excited to nerd out and play stuff that he doesn’t normally get the chance to play live.

He nerded out with a few different instruments, each as impressive as the next. He started with a blues slide guitar which blew my mind (Heh? Heh? Get it?) and then moved to a 12-string guitar. I honestly didn’t even know such an instrument existed. I think playing 6 strings looks difficult enough, so 12 is just insane to me. But he killed it.

I was surprised to see him sing one song while playing the 12-string, as he normally doesn’t sing at all. It was a super cute song, a cover of Lobo’s “Rings.” He winked during a line about “anyone can be a singer” and I laughed.

His whole band, the Family Jules Band, came out toward the end of his set and took turns playing certain instruments like trombone or vocals.

They ended the set with “Albatross,” which is just kinda one of the coolest instrumental songs ever, chill and epic at the same time.

I talked to the girl next to me for a while about how incredibly talented Jules is and how one day he better be selling out stadiums. He’s just musically gifted and it’s always really amazing to see.

Before I left he gave me a copy of his most recent album Live Backwards and told me to have fun with it. First listen through it sounds a little different than his first two albums (or at least the two I have… Hey Jules, am I missing any others?) but it kicks just as much ass.

I think he predominantly plays in the Bay Area right now, but if you ever get the chance, go see him!